27

E.—s

Two instructors and twelve students have enlisted for service at the front. The students have undertaken to write at least one hundred letters per month to soldiers at the front who may hot be in receipt of any correspondence. The football club entered a team for the third-class championship, and went through the season without defeat, wdnning the Broome Shield. A troop of Girl Peace Scouts has been formed. Successful classes were conducted at the following attached centres : Apiti, Pohangina, Rongotea, Rangiwahia, Makino, Kiwitea, Kimbolton, Valley Road, Mangarimu, Halcombe, Bunnythorpe, and Ashhurst. Thanks are due to the local bodies, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, the Farmers' Union, and private subscribers, for donations received during the year. Extract from the Report of the Director of the Wanganui Technical College. During the year there have been many changes in the staff. The Principal, Mr. W. A. Armour, resigned his position in July last to take charge of the Napier Boys' High School. Mr. Armour joined the College in 1911, and by great energy and skill he succeeded in putting a new establishment on a firm footing. The school in all departments owes a great deal to Mr. Armour's organizing and directing ability. The numerous changes in the staff naturally interfered somewdiat with the work, but in the present year we are fortunate in having found efficient substitutes for those who have left. The work is going on very smoothly, and we expect the results will be quite up to the high standard that has been maintained in the past. We therefore look forward confidently to the future, believing that the school has every prospect of being a credit to our town and district. It provides a type of education that meets the requirements of the times, and we trust that it will receive from parents and employers that support and encouragement without which it cannot succeed. The total enrolments during 1915 were 194 in the Technical High School and 1,679 in the evening classes, the individual students in the latter being counted more than once, however, according to the number of classes taken. The attendance at the Technical High School was about the same as in 1914, and towards the end of the year the numbers fell away to 125. , As the year opened with 169 on the roll, the school may be considered to have had a lean year. This may be attributed partly to the war causing the boys to be keenly sought after to fill the places of men at the front, partly to the numerous changes in the staff, and partly to the inevitable loss of boys and girls in the third term, which is a feature of most of our technical colleges. In October and November the produce of the farms begins to move, and there is an active demand for girls and boys for office and workshop. The war has affected the work in some departments of the evening classes of the College to a serious extent. The applied art classes have had to be discontinued. The number of students fell off very much towards the end of the year, and as the instructor volunteered for active service it was felt to be undesirable to continue the classes. In the art department the students were not at all numerous, and the instructor's evenings have been reduced to three. The increased attendance in the Technical High School, however, enabled us profitably to employ our art instructor. The plumbing classes were also very poorly attended, the enlistment of many apprentices being no doubt the primary cause. The same cause reduced the attendances in the engineering classes. The classes in dressmaking were well attended in the early part of the year, but fell off towards the end. In cookery the attendance was not large at any time. Very large and successful classes in first aid, both for men and for women, and in home nursing for women were conducted. The war no doubt put a premium on such knowledge, and encouraged people to take up the work. The Wellington centre of the St. John Ambulance Association, however, did not view the classes with favour, and there was a long delay in issuing the certificates to the students who passed the qualifying examinations. New classes in electric wiring and magnetism and electricity were commenced about the middle of the year, and were fairly well attended. The students of the compulsory classes were required to take English and arithmetic, in which most of them certainly require instruction, but since they think these subjects do not bear upon their trades they are decidedly averse to attending these classes. The Department's regulations, however, do not make these classes compulsory, and it is proposed next year to allow compulsory students to select their own subjects and evenings. This should result in better attendances and better work. The compulsory students form by far the larger portion of the students on the school roll. Many a student comes unwillingly, but once here he finds he can choose the subjects most to his liking, and get instruction free of charge. The work done in the classes was, on the whole, satisfactory. Where it is not satisfactory it is not always the students' fault, but partly our own through our inability for financial reasons to make our classes smaller. I believe that the compulsory classes are here to stay, for other districts are following our example. The chief aim now should be so to raise the standard of the work done in them that the students themselves will realize the value of time given to self-improvement, because they will be able after a complete course of instruction to double or treble their earningpower. In achieving this employers of labour may help themselves, the young people, and their town by encouraging young employees to attend the Technical College. There are many faults in our work we know, and we earnestly wish to remove them, but a technical college is more intimately related to the industries and life of the people than any other of our educational institutions, and so it stands in greater need of public assistance. This does not.meam a request for more monetary assistance, but rather for help and guidance in shaping the instruction given to apprentices and others. In this respect the master builders give us valuable help. They not only give us a substantial donation to our funds, but their representative on the College Committee visits the carpentry and joinery classes at work and gives valuable advice as to the course