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Sess. 11.—1897. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: MANUAL TRAINING AND TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. [In continuation of E.-1c, 1896.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

1. EXTRACT FROM TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION. Manual Tbaining and Technical Insteuction. Last year a report by Mr. J. Struthers, one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in Scotland, on " Sloyd and Kindergarten Occupations in the Elementary School," was reprinted by the Department and distributed to Education Boards, School Committees, and teachers, and subsequently laid on the tables of both Houses of the General Assembly.* The writer, using the term "sloyd" to mean " educational manual training," points out that it may be applied not only to that system of working in wood which is distinctively known as sloyd, but to any system of exercises in any material (wood, iron, cardboard, or clay), provided that such system can be clearly shown to be educational in its objects and methods. With regard to kindergarten occupations, he says that they are, if properly made use of, identical in purpose and effect with the sloyd occupations referred to; that the educational reasons which justify the introduction of either into schools are precisely the same, as are also the educational advantages to be reaped from them. Passing from an enumeration of the various kindergarten occupations suitable for children under eight, he refers to clay-modelling as being capable of refined and delicate manipulations such as will make sumcient demand on the capacities of even the most advanced scholars, and as being used in the schools of Paris as an exercise for the highest classes. Cardboardwork " is capable of or rather demands the utmost exactness, and yet is within the capacity of the average child in Standards 111., IV., and A r ." Woodwork, " as admitting of the greatest variety of form and manipulation, is probably the sloyd occupation par excellence. It is best calculated to secure the immediate result —viz., development of general dexterity." Ironwork, with or without the

• E.-le., Appendix to Journals of House of Representatives, 1896.

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