The Press. TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1897. TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND HOME INDUSTRY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9813, 24 August 1897, Page 4

The Press. TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1897. TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND HOME INDUSTRY.

A recent Blue Book, the report of a Recess Committee on ihe establishment of a Department of Industry for Ireland, contains many interesting and suggestive facts, to which no country can long afford to shut its eyes. Thus: forty years ago Wiirtembnrg was a purely agricultural country, and even thi3 one industry was iv a primitive condition. The country was impoverished by over-population, and in so wretched a condition as to awaken continual fears of some great disaster. Now Wurfcemburg is one of the busiest hives of industry on the Continent. Instead of one industry it has scores. It is no longer overpopulated, though the population has greatly increased. Farms are more productive, and the farmers have prosperous fellow-citizens who are able to buy their produce at remunerative rates, and there is said not to be a pauper in the kingdom. From this primitive German principality of forty years ago, England, the workshop of the world, now buys blankets, carpets, flannels, hosiery, linen, tissues, instruments, types, drugs, chemicals, paper, ivory goods, wood carving, toys, furniture, hats, pianos, gunpowder, clocks, &c. This is a revolution so startling that it would be folly not to enquire into the cause of it. The answer to the enquiry will be briefly this: — "The revolution wag brought about by using human intelligence and adapting the means to the end desired."

At the great Exhibition of 1851 the President of the Board of Trade for Wiirtemburg was -struck with the multiplicity of ha_-dicraft of the nations, and resolved to try to transplant some of them to his own needy country. He began with a nation that was without mechanical knowledge, and left off with a nation attempting, with success, every small trade of Europe. The first step was to rescue education from the pedantry that contrives to waste the precious years of childhood without more than a remote contact with the pursuits by which a nation must live. The three B's were .not negl»ct_d_ but they were taught ia

such proportions as to make Toom for matters of direct usefulness. The children not only learnt how to acquire knowledge, but how to use it. Tens of thousands of boys and girls began to learn basket making, brush making, dress making, wood carving, and the like. The German farmers submitted to taxation for technical education in the firm belief that those who had the best schools would one day rule the markets. In 1883 a weaving and dyeing school was built at Crefeld, at a cost of £42, 500. It has since been doubled in size. Many other technical schools that England would have envied have been entirely rebuilt on more serviceable lines. Twelve years ago Germany had no electric College equipped like Finsbury Technical College, London. But now Germany has several electric colleges, with which England can offer no comparison.

The result is that, in addition to manufactures on a large scale, the whole of agricultural Germany and many other parts of the Continent have grafted a trade on to the little farm, and have replaced penury hy plenty. In Saxony, for example, there are 12,000 hand looms. But these abound in vast numbers all over Germany. The traveller sees processions of women, each with a literal dogcart, carrying a piece of cloth to the merchant and taking back bundles of* worsted yarns. Iv the highest classes of linens, such as superior tablecloths, they defy the competition of machinery. Workmen boast that they can make their looms do everything but talk. In-" the plainer work several members of the farm household take a turn at the hand loom as they have leisure. One of the advantages of this system of home work is that orders which a factory would not look at, can be taken for siugle pieces. One merchant boasted that he had 30,000 patterns, any one of which he was prepared to supply from the hand looms. Another mentioned that he had orders for £12,000 worth of toys, all of which would be made in the L leisure of home life. Another example -'of industry on the farm resulting from technical education is that gifeat numbers of peasant girls and women, instead of doing useless " talking, ,K &c., make in their spare time superior kinds of pillow lace, and thus earn £8 or £10 a year. In Switzerland every young farmer secures his own comfort, and adds to the prosperity of his country by a trade. He learns wood carving at school, or watch-spring making, or acts as a guide to tourists. •

These little household industries are financed by the village banks or money clubs. These are a vast power derived from the penny thrift of the people. From these, the character of every villager being known, the poorest can obtain such credit as hi 3 tiny business may require. Of these banks there are 9934 in Germany alone, and they are multiplying all over the Continent. But Continental technical education does not deal with mechanical trades alone. It recognises that agriculture is the greatest of all industries, and one that best pays for being well done. " Every guilder," says the Dutch President of Agriculture, *•• spent i_ promofcing agriculture brings profit,a hundredfold." All - schools teach elementary agriculture, and give more advanced lessons to hoys over thirteen, whilst those who wish to become managers and experts are also provided for. Even the girls learn farmyard economy, the rearing of poultry and the feeding of animals, But the chief feature of the system, especially in France, is the village plot, or small model and sample farm. This is usually lent or given by a land owner. There are 4000 such plots in France, and they cost the State about £12 a year each. They are worked under the direction of itinerant Professors, who not only teach the children, but also lecture to the neighbouring farmers on the experiment ground. The plots are worked by the latest machinery, gladly lent by the makers, and by the free labour of those anxious to learn, or to benefit the community. The minor work is done by the pupils.

The results of the system are manifold, and all good, We may mention the following :—First, while British agriculture is seriously depressed, the Continental farmer was never more prosperous. Second, that in many minor.branches of farming the Continent beats England in her own market. In poultry, eggs, butter, honey, and the like Continental nations are easily first. In 1860 Danish butter was reported to be " execrably bad." The change is due to scientific education. The aromaproducing microbes, for example, were discovered, not to be forgotten or ignored, but to be cultivated, and it is now a marketable commodity. The Danes are so thoroughly alive to the importance of keeping up to the times, that they maintain a staff of experts abroad to watch their interests and to advise producers at home. Another important result of technical education is that the schools are much better attended and more valued. A scientific enthusiasm, too, has been generated among the country youth which saves them from despising farming, and has checked their tendency to drift into towns, there to swell the useless and dangerous classes.