8.—5

36

Extract from the Report of the Inspector op Schools. The higher education of the pupils beyond the Sixth Standard has embodied technical education to a very small extent. This is confined to the connection of a few boys with a woodwork class and of girls with a cookery class. The reason for this is that the industries requiring technical training are comparatively few in Westland, and the great majority of children who remain at school after the primary course is concluded do so for the purpose of obtaining general education or more especially of securing a pass for examinations leading to appointments in the Civil Service, in the schools, or in offices connected with legal or other professions. The demand must be supplied, and a technical day-school would receive hardly any support. It is hoped, however, that, now a building for the purposes of technical education has been provided, it will be possible to establish in one centre useful evening classes, in connection with which effective practical instruction in science and geometrical drawing may prove of sufficient service to secure a satisfactory attendance. A suggestion has been made also to introduce, both by inclusion in the curriculum of country schools and by the institution of evening classes, practical instruction in agricultural science. The scope for this is at present not wide, but if a beginning is made the interest in this form of education will, without doubt, increase. Statement of Beceipts and Expenditure for the Year ending the 31st December, 1905, in respect of Special Classes conducted in Westland. Receipts. £ s. d. Expenditure. £ s. d Balance at beginning of year .. .. 89 14 7 Salaries of instructors .. .. .. 32 17 6 Ctpitation on classes .. .. .. 74 19 9 Office expenses (including salaries, staFees .. .. .. .. 610 6 tionery, &c ) .. .. .. 010 0 Balance at end of year .. .. .. 19 12 4 Advertising and printing .. .. .. 2 .6 3 Lighting and heating .. .. .. 915 6 Examina ions, &c. .. .. .. 2 0 0 Material for class use .. .. .. 718 4 Capitation handed to Kumara School Commiitee .. .. .. .. .. 63 3 9 Fares of teachors .. .. .. .. 58 14 6 Furniture, fittings, and apparatus .. .. 13 11 4 £190 17 2 £190 17 2

NORTH CANTERBURY. Extract from the Report of the Education Board. Manual and Technical Instruction.— Speaking generally, the interest in manual and technical instruction has been sustained during the year at the several centres where either associated or special classes are carried on. Towards the end of the year an associated Board of Managers was formed at Akaroa for the purpose of establishing technical classes. Early in the year a special committee was set up to consider whether it was practicable and desirable for the Board to carry on the Christehurch technical classes. The committee's report emphasized the necessity of appointing a Director, and recommended that another effort should be made to obtain the co-operation of the several local bodies, with the view of appointing a Board of Managers and raising annually by way of contribution and subsidy a sum sufficient to allow of the classes being continued on a more satisfactory basis. The action taken by the Board on the committee's recommendations and the personal representations made by Mr. Hight and Mr. Russell, the members of the Board who interviewed the local bodies interested, were entirely successful, and the classes were formally taken over by the new Board of Managers in November, 1905. The generous contribution made by the Christchurch City Council, the support of other local bodies, and the appointment of a Director to personally supervise and control the classes encourage the belief that technical instruction in Christehurch will shortly be developed on sound lines, providing valuable opportunities for apprentices to acquire a sound knowledge of the principles underlying their respective trades and occupations. In response to numerous requests, and after ascertaining that a large number of teachers were desirous of receiving instruction in the subject, the Board has recently agreed to the appointment of an instructor in agriculture, one of whose principal duties will be to conduct theoretical and practical classes. The matter will form the subject of further reference in the Board's report for this present year. Extract from the Report of the Inspectors of Schools. \ In some parts of the colony there is at present a movement in the direction of bringing naturestudy in its economic aspect into greater prominence among the subjects taught. We freely acknowledge the importance of agriculture as a national industry, and we do not ignore the close correlation existing among all branches of knowledge, but we do think that effort and time will be largely wasted in the attempt to superimpose upon the routine of the elementary school any technical agricultural instruction worthy of the name. The unity of nature is the aspect most prominent in early life, and an attempt to present it to young children as a series of thought-tight compartments will only result in their coming to regard the study as a set task. The immature brain will become a modified lumber-room for the technicalities which on occasion may be repeated in a more or less parrot-like fashion, but which will find no permanent lodgment in the mind of the child who is the victim of a well-meant attempt. The primary school is not the place for technical instruction, nor have its senior pupils attained such an age as will enable them to specialise with profit. Its function is to bestow a general training and to cultivate such mental alertness as will enable