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5. GENERAL TRADES. Book and Printing Trades .—The London Technical Education Board has given great attention to these trades, with remarkably successful results. The Bolt Court Technical School, Fleet Street, and the St. Bride's Foundation Institute are the two principal centres of instruction. The Board finding strong feeling upon the part of the lithographic and printing trades against technical education as conducted by the Board, co-operated with the workmen themselves in the management of their own trade school. The school is managed by a committee elected by and from the National Society of Lithographic Artists and representatives of the Technical Education Board. Only those who are engaged in the printing and photographic trades are admitted to the school. Instruction is given to boys who are going to be apprenticed, but the committee decide what time shall elapse before apprenticeship commences. This policy has been very successful, the attendance at the school being about one-fifth of the entire London trade of lithographic-drawing, designing, and photo-engraving. The subjects taught comprise the various branches of negative-making, collotype, photolithography, zinc line and tone etching, and tone-etching on copper and brass. The school is well equipped, with good studios containing cameras, fitted with a pair of Brockie-Pell twenty-five ampere alternating current arc lamps, arranged for copying; a large sensitising-room for wet collodion photography, a developing-room to accommodate eight students, a room for the preparation of the metal for printing, a general work-room with benches and electric lamp for printing, dryingcupboards, &c, and a space covered in with glass for intensifying and finishing negatives. Then there is a press-room with lithographic and copper-plate printing-press, a room for collotype and photo-lithography with all appliances, and two etching-rooms. The school also includes drawing from the cast and antique, drawing and painting from the nude and draped model, quick sketching, drawing as applied to process and the practice of design. The technical side includes the study and. practice of lithography, chromotype blocks, and tricolour negative making. Particular attention is paid to the lighting, the life-room being most effectively lighted with Sunbeam lamps of one-hundred-candle power. The tricolour negative class works in the photographic studio and dark rooms. This class, which produces negatives for the trichromatic-printing process, is well attended. There is in addition a class for the production of aquatint colour blocks, a process capable of producing blocks giving beautiful results in the letterpress-printing machine. Some of the reference works mentioned are as follows: " Zincography as practised in Connection with Letterpress Printing," J. Bcek (translation, Wyman and Sons); "Instruction in Lithography," C. Straker; "Grammar of Lithography," W. D. Bichmond; "Photo-engraving" and " Photo-mechanical Processes," W. T. Wilkinson; "Collotype and Photo-lithography," T. Schnauss ; and " The Printer's Handbook," C. T. Jacobi. Typography and Letterpress. —At the St. Bride's Foundation Institute every branch of instruction needed by the compositor is given, the classes being attended by over two hundred students. There are also other large centres of instruction. The St. Bride's and the Bolt Court Schools work conjointly. The former school is also managed by a joint committee of the Society of Printers and the Technical Education Board of the London County Council. The St. Bride's School is essentially a printing school, in which the whole work centres in the press. Beference works mentioned in this section are: "Practical Printing," by J. Southward; " Printing-machines and Machine-printing," F. J. Wilson; " Electrotyping," S. W. Urquhart; " Manual of Typography," A. Oldfield ; " Printing : a Practical Treatise on the Art of Typography," C. T. Jacobi; " Modern Printing," J. Southward; and "Technical Queries," C. Blakshaw. Bookbinding. —The classes in this subject are well attended, the instruction being in forwarding and finishing. At the Central School of Arts and Crafts, Eegent Street, special classes have been formed, and the subject is treated as an artistic craft, two rooms being fitted with all the necessary appliances. There is, I think, room for classes of the above character in our four large centres, and there is no doubt much good work would result if these classes were established. Cabinetmaking. —Large classes are held in connection with the furniture and cabinetmaking trades; considerable difficulty is, however, experienced in the matter of attendance, owing to the men and boys working overtime. The special course of work at the Finsbury Technical College, one of the centres for this work, covers a period of three years.' The first year's course consists of technical drawing (setting out), enlarging and diminishing of mouldings and ornament, geometry and perspective; freehand drawing, ornament and models; modelling in clay for wood-carvers, and workshop instruction for apprentices only in the nature and properties of wood, correct use of tools, dovetailing, mortising, dowelling, rule-joints, panelling and veneering, inlaying and working mouldings. Second year's course : Drawing full-size working drawings, and to scale; principles of construction, carcass- and table-work, including cabinets, book-cases, sideboards, tables, desks, &c.; workshop practice in the above; modelling in clay and freehand drawing; and a course of lectures upon art furniture, including domestic furniture, inlaid, carved, gilt and painted, English and French. Third year's course : Designs of original furniture, various styles, and preparation of complete drawings and details; styles and ornament, technology of woods, estimating, inlaying; modelling in clay, including the figure from the cast and from the life, design in relief of figure subjects, and floral ornaments ; technical painting for panels, decorations, and wood-staining with permanent dyes. The work throughout these classes was of a high order, and from my conversation with the students I found a very keen appreciation of the efforts made on behalf of the furniture- and cabinet-workers to improve the trade. Every effort is made in the course of work to induce originality of thought and treatment of various forms of decorations. There is no reason why the whole of the above course of work may not be carried out in our New Zealand art schools. Although special classes may not be formed, the various sections are, with

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