E.—l

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During the year under review 353 returned soldiers availed themselves of free tuition at technical schools and classes, twenty-seven centres making provision for this important work. The attendances show an increase of over' 100 per cent, on those of 1.917. Instruction is provided in the following subjects : Electrical, motor, and mechanical engineering ; carpentry and joinery ; and commercial subjects. The Repatriation Department has provided the necessary funds for additional instructors and equipment wherever necessary. The following technical schools had a roll number of more than 500, exclusive of the technical high, schools carried on in connection with some of them : — „ , . Roll Number. SchooL 1917. 1918. Christchurch Technical School .. .. .. ..1,267 1,276 Dunedin Technical School .. .. .. 1,105 1,147 Wellington Technical School .. .. .. ..1,256 1,139 Auckland Technical School .. .. .. ..1,211 1,047 Wanganui Technical School . . .. .. .. 654 578 Palmerston North Technical School. .. .. .. 660 560 Invercargill Technical School . . .. .. .. 524 550 Capitation earnings for the year amounted to £34,917, as against £33,749 paid in .1917. It will be noted that, compared with 1917, there is a decrease of 1,490 students in the total number receiving instruction, and. an increase of £1,168 in capitation payments. The decrease is unquestionably largely due to a falling-off in the number* of students attending single classes in. country districts, and not in the number of those who are taking a more or less related group course ; and the increase in the number of free-place holders, for whom additional payments are made, accounts for the increase in the capitation earnings. The amount earned in respect of free pupils was £10,750, made up as follows : Free-place holders, £8,857 ; compulsory pupils, £1,441 ; discharged soldiers, £453. All of the last-named earn not only the ordinary rate of capitation, but an additional 3d. for each hour of attendance. Technological examinations were conducted by the Department on behalf of the City and Guilds of London Institute at sixteen centres in the Dominion. The total number of entries was 252, a decrease on the number for the previous year, and the number of passes was 129. Technical High Schools. No increase has been made during the year in the number of technical high schools, but there are indications of an advance to a clearer understanding of the value of this type of secondary school; and time appears to prove that it is capable of filling a not unimportant place in our national system of education. It provides a foundation course of instruction in the recognized culture subjects of general education, at the same time not underestimating the cultural value of a properly directed elementary vocational training. The conviction is steadily growing that this dual training is capable of producing both trained intelligence and technical knowledge of the highest value to the State and to the individual. Mr. W. L. Hichens, Chairman of one of the largest engineering firms in the United Kingdom, when addressing a company of headmasters of English secondary schools, said, " the true function of education is to teach young people how to learn and how to live — not how to make a living." But if in our study of educational factors and values we find a method of instruction which trains intelligence and discovers aptitude indicating the path in the industrial life a youth should take, we may surely teach both " how to live " and " how to make a living " ; at any rate, the attempt is made in the technical high schools, and it is contended that so far the attempt has not been without success. In this connection it may not be out of place again to quote from the|address by Mr. Hichens. He says, " Strong pressure is being brought to commercialize our education, to make it a paying proposition, to make it subservient to the god and thus convert us into a money-making mob. Buskin has said 'no nation can last that has made a mob of itself.' Above all, a nation cannot last as a money-making mob. It cannot with impunity—it cannot with existence —go on despising literature, despising science, despising art, despising nature, despising compassion, and concentrating its soul on pence."