8.—5

18

Dargaville. —The classes held at Dargaville last year were English, commercial arithmetic, typewriting, book-keeping, dressmaking, and painting from nature. Of these the dressmaking classes were the only ones that were well attended. None of the free-place pupils of 1905 qualified for senior free places. Kamo. —Technical classes were held at Kamo for the first time, the subjects taken up being English, commercial arithmetic, German, shorthand, and book-keeping. The number of individual students in attendance was 20, and the number of class entries 61. Onehunga. —The only technical class held at Onehunga in 1906 was in dressmaking, at which 13 students attended. Hikurangi. —A start was made with technical classes at Hikurangi, the subjects taken up being English, commercial arithmetic, commercial correspondence, book-keeping, and dressmaking. The number of individuals in attendance was 30, and the number of class entries 73. Turua. —Technical classes were commenced in Turua in the following subjects: Commercial arithmetic, commercial geography, English, book-keeping, history, drawing, and mathematics. The number of individual students was 14, and the number of class entries 59. Waikato Dressmaking Classes. —At the beginning of the year the Board appointed as an itinerant instructor in dressmaking Miss Bessie Campbell, who had been assistant instructor in dressmaking at the Technical College during 1905. Miss Campbell visited in turn during each week Hamilton, Paeroa, Te Aroha, Waihi, and Waihou. The classes were attended by about eighty students. Considering the population of these places the attendance was very satisfactory, and some excellent work was done. Speaking generally, the country evening classes in this district have been disappointing. There seems a great tendency to view the classes, when they are started, in the light of an entertainment; a proportionately large number of pupils join, but when they find that knowledge is only gained by assiduous application and individual effort a large number of them leave the classes. Then, again, many of the country students are not willing to attend such classes as will so improve their general education as to enable them to derive benefit from attendance at specialised classes. Auckland Technical College. Day Classes. —During the year a very important step was taken in inaugurating day classes for boys and girls who had passed through the public schools, and who had obtained the necessary qualification to enable them to enter technical classes as free pupils. During the past few years there has been an increased tendency all over the world to make education more practical, and of such a character as to better fit pupils for the struggle for existence once they are started in life. The following extract from the report of the Commission of the State of Massachusetts on Industrial and Technical Education, 1906, is, I think, worth quoting: — " For the great majority of children who leave school to enter employments at the age of fourteen or fifteen, the first three or four years are practically waste years so far as the actual productive value of the child is concerned, and so far as increasing his industrial or productive efficiency. The employments upon which they enter demand so little intelligence and so little manual skill that they are not educative in any sense. For these children, many of whom now leave school from their own choice at the completion of the seventh grade, further school training of a practical character would be attractive, and would be a possibility if it prepared for the industries. Hence any scheme of education which is to increase the child's productive efficiency must consider the child of fourteen. " Children who continue in school until sixteen or eighteen, especially if they complete a highschool course, are able to enter upon employments of a higher grade, usually in mercantile pursuits, and they are able, by reason of greater maturity and better mental training, to learn the technique of their employment in a shorter time; but they are wholly lacking in manual skill, and in what we have called industrial intelligence. For the purpose of training for efficiency in productive employments the added years which they spend in school are to a considerable extent lost jears. In the cases of both classes of children the employment upon which they enter on leaving school is determined by chance. " The productive industries of the State, including agriculture, manufactures, and building, depend mainly upon chance foi recruiting their service. A few apprenticeships still exist in a few industries or parts of industries, but very few apprentices are indentured, and many so-called apprenticeships are falsely named. The knowledge and skill which the new men bring to the service of any industry is only what they have picked up in a haphazard way. Some bring much and many bring little. This condition tends to increase the cost of production, to limit the output in quantity, and to lower the grade in quality. Industries so recruited cannot long compete with similar industries recruited from men who have been technically trained. In the long-run that industry, wherever in the world it is located, which combines with general intelligence the broadest technical knowledge and the highest technical skill, will command the markets of the world. " The industries of Massachusetts need, in addition to the general intelligence furnished by the public-school system and the skill gained in the narrow fields of subdivided labour, a broader training in the principles of the trades and a finer culture in taste as applied to material, workmanship, and design. Whatever may be the cost of such training, the failure to furnish it would in the end be more costly. " The State needs a wider diffusion of industrial intelligence as a foundation for the highest technical success, and this can onjy be acquired in connection with the general system of education into which it should enter as an integral part from the beginning. The latest philosophy of education reinforces the demands of productive industry by showing that that which fits a child best for his place in the world as a producer tends to his own highest development physically, intellectually, and morally. " The investigation has shown the increasing necessity for a woman to enter the industrial world for the sake of self-support, and hence that she should be prepared to earn a respectable living-wage, and at the same time that the attempt should be made to fit her so that she can and will enter those industries which are most closely allied to the home.