E.—s

23

in the engineering and other technical classes, which seem to have received less attention hitherto than their importance demands. A great difficulty has been the lack of uniformity of students in the various classes of the school, and the absence of gradation of the work. Elementary and advanced students attended the same class, with the inevitable result that the teacher's time was frittered away in individual tuition in many cases where class teaching would have been much more suitable. There has been, and still is, a painful lack of proper accommodation and equipment for many of the classes outside the Art Department, and even for these art classes the rooms and equipment are far from being entirely suitable. Another disadvantage under which the school labours arises partly from the floating character of the population of the town, and partly from the fact that in any miscellaneous class more advanced students are with difficulty kept, so that for both reasons the class itself tends to become a procession of students, who stay for a term or two and then leave the school, with the merest smattering, to make room for fresh students. Under the system of having four terms in the year, and of admitting students at half term as well as at the beginning of each term, this evil is exaggerated. This system, however, has been adopted in order, apparently, to maintain the number in attendance as high as possible, so as to keep the revenue of the school at a sufficiently high level to meet the expenditure. It is by no means certain that in this respect the system does not defeat its own object. At the same time, we would suggest that classes in advanced subjects, being, as a rule, small in numbers, should be able to earn capitation at a much higher rate than the large plomentarv classes. It appears, however, that by running large elemenrary classes sufficient capitation may be earned to make up the loss in fees and capitation on the more advanced classes, and it is in this direction that a solution of the financial question may be found. These elementary classes must be made a satisfactory nursery for future advanced students, if the system is to become self-supporting in every sense on the basis of the present scale of fees and capitation. With our present limitations of room, and having regard to the class of evening student (hat we can attract, these elementary classes must be conducted during the daytime, and must therefore be confined largely to younger boys and girls undergoing preparation for apprenticeship. We are in hopes that arrangements may be made for admitting apprentices to cfay classes in future years, so that the science of his trade may be learned by the apprentice at the same time as the practice. It is only by a connected training beginning as soon as the student leaves the preparatory school, and extending up to the end of his apprenticeship, that we can hope to prepare the young New-Zealander to meet competition from men trained in other parts of the world. Unless we can give the student such preparation we feel that the system must fall short of its object. Under the arrangements subsisting hitherto, a long hiatus generally occurs in the education of the student, lasting from the time that he leaves school till fFe time —often some five or six years later—when he wakes up to the fact that his knowledge is not sufficient for his trade or profession. After this hiatus the student enters the evening classes of the technical school, and attempts to pick up the lost threads of his training, and to furbish up knowledge, which was probably of the wrong kind to begin with, and has lain rusting under the dust of years since he left school. The process is painful to the student and heartbreaking to the teacher, and has the serious drawback of discouraging further effort and of postponing—often indefinitely—any real advance of the student in the knowledge for which he comes thirsting to the school. The courses of the school have been reorganized for the year 1905, by permission of the Department, in the following ways: (1.) The evening classes have been arranged so as to separate more completely elementary and advanced students. (2.) Day classes for the preparation of boys and girls for apprenticeship have been established with a view to providing a nursery for the evening classes, and so meeting as far as possible the present difficulties of the evening work. W. S. Lα Trobe, Director. Statement of Receipts rind Expenditure for Year ending Slit December, 1905. Receipts. £ s. d. I Expenditure. £ s. d. Balance at beginning of year .. .. 10 14 0 ] Administration — Grants fmm Government— Salaries of instructors .. .. 2,523 15 4 Capitation on classes .. .. .. 732 1 2 Advertising and printing .. .. 112 13 6 Capitation on technical scholarships .. 12 1 0 Tjipbting ard heiting .. .. .. 151 2 6 Furniture, fittings, apparatus .. .. 400 8 8 Insurance and repairs .. .. .. 139 6 4 Material .. .. .. .. 89 7 6 Rent .. .. .. .. 40 0 0 Subsidies on voluntary contributions .. 129 5 0 Examinations, &c. .. .. .. 29 19 6 Other receipts, viz.— Material for olass use .. .. .. 145 7 3 Fees.. .. .. .. .. 1,585 9 0 Other expenses, viz.— Voluntary contributions .. .. 131 1 6 Cleaning .. .. .. .. 125 7 6 Rent, Industrial Hall .. .. .. 40 0 0 Library and prizes .. .. .. 65 3 4 Instruction of teachers .. .. 140 0 0 Travelling T, .. .. .. 102 13 7 Sale of lead .. .. .. .. 46 3 9 Model fees and incidentals .. .. 59 1 5 Wellington College and Girls' High School Buildings—Furniture, fittings, and apparatus 233 18 1 drawing classes .. .. .. 120 0 0 Rent, Victoria College .. .. 97 10 0 Balance at end of year .. .. .. 194 10 11 £3,728 8 4 £3,728 8 4 W. A. Evans, Chairman ) ~T W. S. Lα Trobe, Secretary} of Ma ™g erB ' Extract from the Report op the Managers of the Petone Technical Classed. The Managers have pleasure in reporting that the work of the various classes carried on in the Technical School has, in their judgment, been very successful. The number of pupils who have attended the school the past session has amply shown the need for such an institution in Petone. The Managers hope to be able to arrange for the examination of Ihe various classes towards the end of the incoming session, and to issue certificates to the students. The number