TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 279, 18 August 1908, Page 5

TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.

■ s ' THE' SITE QUESTION.

PROPOSED EXCHANGE OF LAND. A CENTRAL POSITION. The people of New Zealand are "magnificently disoontented." They are in. 'Wellington, at all eventp, and few will deny that it is :a healthy symptom ; in our ,natioual and municipal system.; • Once establish ■ clearly that' ; something is needed: that would benefit tho, whole community,, and the matter is taken/up earnestly—and l something happens. After tho fever hospital 'perhaps tliero is nothing''of more 'importance to Wellington than adequate provisionfor technical education, and this the best authorities state there is not at present. It is true that quite recently new engineering, plumbing; and carpentering 'shops were provided .in Mercer Street—it was not before they were required —but it is in that structural maze that extends from Mercer Street to Victoria Street where overcrowding exists, and efficiency' suffers! -There is nothing ; new in this. ,Mr. W. S. La'Trobe, the director, .lias, reported agiin 'a'nd again against,the present condi-. tions and in favour ol new premises, "where the institution itself" iintil there is Nothing; left to report. : The Board has' been' with him right through, but its endeavours to bring about a more desirable state of affairs, has'.been up till recently a series of Tnlmffi " which would almost tempt, one to believe that technical education' was: an: undesired' something to be discouraged. . The Government turned tho cold- shoulder' on any -possibility of' assistance: from, that ,'quartpr long ago—rejected the idea of handing over a portion of the Mount Cook Reserve, where are housed, in'a 'huge building .designed as a gaol- quite thirty or foHy members of our standing army. - '• ; • : .

What to Fear. , A'.writer recently! said:-r"lt is not .Germany's guns England has to fear, but Germany's ' technical education!'' Doubtless such a suggestion would only induce smiles from: some of our legislators, but there is a form' of . aggression as .serious' as that which ; belches from the cannon's mouth. It exists in the! comprehensive .equipment, of every lad industrially, and of''setting him to work without that interval of.. " wasting'.'.that is' so general-. with tho .-colonial - 'youth—between the time lie finally drops school .-and, seriously-takes up the training that; is to fit: him for the battle of life. That -nation wliich is! best equipped industrially is .best able'to \stand tho stress of war, and.; is -to be .'feared the more for 'that industrial efficiency as' it. has something more to coino and l go . on; than .the nation which in that, respect, lags behind. Industry' means wealth,, and gold is not tho least important factor: . in. decidmg the precedenco of nations. City-Council'Sympathetic. •' To return to the point/at issue, tho Board, 'teirig . repelled by the Government,' decided -.tacklev the City ; Council?-. ; Fortunately thero are sitting round tho horse-shoe; table of ;tho" Council half-a-dozen gentlemen who take, ; .a genuine interest in', technical education.'That body began by raising its stibsidyi' to-,tho Technical Board, and then by turning !about to see what it could do in the:ir.atter of a site. Though jiothing; definite has been decided opoh the ! inspection of a number of likely : sites,: .willingly undertaken by Mr. J. I'. Luke ( (Chairman), and Mr. W. S. La Trobe (director), has not been altogether unprofit- ■ able. As everyone knows, the area of land available ■, for such a purpose in the right Walifcy is not very great, but the search ■ has lrdsulted in the. discovery of part of a ." ity reservo in a convenient site, but with ' 4 /hicli nothing can.be dono until .the Mayor stums from Auckland. The land—about two / icres—is in Nowtown, and is; within. threo 'ainutes' walk of either tho Newtown of A'allace Street tram-cars. If the Mayor and Council approve, and terms can be arranged in the'way of exchanging the present Mercer Street site for theso suburban acres, 1 a Bill will doubtless be promoted for sub- . mission to Parliament this session to. make' the? .transfer-..g00d. Parliament .'should , not mike, any objection to tho interchange of properties under the' circumstances,, and Wellington' will be the richer by having a ' Soehnical school that can expand with the growth of the city. • ' ' , Jhfe Centre of Population. . -The ; site'may seem a little out of the way to some people with a. limited knowledge of. tho modern Wellington. This is a phase of the matter, which Mr. La Trobe lias .paid ■ particlilar attention to. He has burned tho nidnight j' oil locating precisely the centre >f the " student population "—meaning that :lass of boy likely to -take up such Work is . he is, likely to get a grounding in at tho school. This spot is somewhere in the vicinity of- the old tramway sheds in Adelaide. Road, and every year sees it edging further to the southward. The sito tentatively selected'is in every - way suitable for the purpose intondejd, and it onlv remains now for the City Council and Parliament to see the thing through for tho long campaign ,«f righteous discontent to end.