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Germany before the war was engaged in a struggle for mastery. The war was a short cut to world dominion, and, like many other short cuts, it is doomed to failure. When peace comes at length the process will be repeated, perhaps with Germany as our competitors, perhaps with some other nation. The public mind has been partly roused, however, and technical education may get some share of the public attention. At present the position in the smaller technical colleges is that the capitation paid on the technical courses is inadequate. It is only because of general and commercial courses requiring little material or equipment that, the technical courses can exist. The capitation payments are less than those paid to secondary schools, and the technical courses naturally involve heavier expenses than the general. The attitude of Government Departments, which are slow to recognize the training given, also seriously retards the progress of our schools. Strange as it may appear, the Public Service is practically closed to students from technical colleges. The railway authorities force boys away from the day classes at sixteen years of age if the boys wish to become apprentices to mechanical engineering in the railway workshops, nor is any allowance made for a boy's training in the mechanical-engineering courses : such a boy is treated as an equal with the boy who comes straight from the primary school. In the Public Works Department and the Lands and Survey Department preference is given to the boy with his Public Service Entrance examination as against the products of the mechanical and civil engineering classes. In the clerical branches of the Public Service the boy who passes in commercial subjects has no preference over one wdio takes general subjects. The Public Service Commissioner's shorthand-typists' examination for girls was the first opportunity given to our students to enter the Public Service, and if we have patience this failure of Government Departments to recognize the training in the technical schools equipped and conducted by the Education Department may eventually be remedied. The Government should bo the first to value highly the training given in its own schools, and when it does private employers will do so too. Then technical colleges will get their full measure of public support, the standard of work will be raised, and there will be no class of occupation that is followed by large numbers of our citizens that will not be taught full}' and on modern scientific lines. Such schools wdll not only " make men," as the high schools do, but they will make men ready for the battle of life, and educated to a state where they can bring trained minds to bear on the problems of their daily life, and solve them better than they have ever been solved before. Moreover, where the vocational and the nonvocational subjects are taught in the same institution there should be produced citizens to go out into the various professions and trades with an intimate knowledge of the aims and aspirations of other classes than their own. Such an educational system will tend to produce an educated democracy, which is the ideal all educationalists have in mind. G. J. Park, Director. Extract from the Report of the Controlling Authority of the Palmerston North Technical School. Although the war has overshadowed everything and taken its toll from the students and instructors of the school, yet the year has been one of progress and advancement. The average roll (420) of individual students has constituted a record, while the total number attending for the year was 566. In all about sixty classes were held, the number of instructors being twenty-four. Extra equipment has been provided for the engineering and dressmaking departments. A. smithy and a new dressmaking-room, fully equipped, have been provided. Both of these department's continue to grow, and the extra accommodation was much needed. An attempt was made at the close of the year to get day engineering classes instituted for 1916, but so far the response has not been of such a nature as to warrant the Board's appointing a special teacher and starting the classes. No doubt the boys are wanted for work until the war is over, wdien a sufficient number of students should be forthcoming. The work of the school in all departments has during the year been good, and the Inspector of Technical Schools, Mr. Isaac, was pleased to report on the good tone of the school as well as on the solid work done. The Board acknowledges with thanks the usual annual donations from the Borough Council, Kairanga County Council, the Workingmen's Club, Farmers' Union, and also appreciates the assistance of the local newspapers, which are always ready to publish anything that will materially assist the school. The prospects for 1916 are considerably better than those of past years, the classes being better filled and the numbers generally being much higher. The school, without a doubt, supplies a want of which the young people of the town and their elders are quick to take advantage. The success of the school is largely duo to the energy, enthusiasm, and taetfulness of the Director, and this is reflected by the efficient staff who work so well under him. ij j| pi ODDEK Chairman Extract from the Report of the Director of the Palmerston North Technical School. The war looms largo as one thinks of the teachers and students who have left us to play their part in the great struggle for right and freedom. The classes that have suffered most through students going to the front have been the trade classes, especially the plumbing class : there have been no fewer than six from that class away. There are still, however, many apprentices in the plumbing trade in town, and I would ask the co-operation of the master plumbers in influencing their employees with regard to the benefit obtainable by attending the Technical School classes, as it is exceedingly difficult for any journeyman plumber to get his certificate unless he attends the Technical School. The total number of individuals who have passed through the school this year is 566, including 165 free pupils. The efficiency of the school as a whole has been well maintained. The dressmaking department especially has gone ahead by leaps and bounds, making it necessary to appoint an additional instructor. The popularity of these classes