The Guardian TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1938 A Useful Work Handicapped

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIX, Issue 87, 1 November 1938, Page 4

The Guardian

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1938 A Useful Work Handicapped

Printed at Leeston, Canterbury, New Zealand, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons.

iSllesmere Technical Association has just completed another successful session in holding adult technical classes in the different centres of the county. Students to the number of over 120 received instruction, and so eager were they that in at least two classes extra terms were held. The association is doing a very useful work in providing not only classes for subjects of value in farming and every-day work, but in cultural and spare time occupations as well. With shorter hours of work and the employment of an ever-increas-ing proportion of labour-saving machinery, more leisure time is available and consequently a greater need exists for agreeable and useful methods of spending that leisure. This problem is not so acute in the rural areas, for there is always some job which needs doing on the farm, but it is not unknown, and is becoming an increasingly difficult one in the larger centres. Therefore any educational movement which will provide a stimulus towards training in cultural and recreational subjects so as to utilise some of the spare time in a profitable manner, is one which should receive every encouragement. It is not suggested that all the spare time of the people should be spent in the cultivation of the mind, for wholesome amusements and physical training of the body should not. be neglected, the ultimate objective being a sound and a reasoning mind in a body ■that is physically fit. Individuals who, by mental and physical training, are taught to think and act for themselves, are of far greater value to the country they live in than those who are subject to mass-think-ing and who have as much individuality and initiative as a mob of sheep.

The training given through the instrumentality of the Technical Association is, in a humble way, capable of being directed towards the objective mentioned, and holds vast possibilities for development and expanded usefulness. Unfortunately, any such extension is cramped and hindered by the lack of a pro-

perly equipped building. At the conference of members of the association and instructors held at Leeston on Tuesday there was a pitiful reiteration of this fact, almost every speaker adding emphasis to this and pointing out how the usefulness of the classes is hampered by the lack of proper accommodation and equipment. Members of the association, who represent all parts of the county, and the local instructors too, are keenly interested in their work and anxious to do their best for their pupils; the young people are ready to do their part and it is the confident opinion of the association that there would be greater enrolments were better facilities available, so it seems a pity to spoil the ship for the ha'pennyworth of tar which is needed in this instance.

We know that the Minister of Education has ideals along similar lines to what we have mentioned and it appears to us that this district presents a suitable field, with good prospects of success, in which to try out extensions to the system of adult education, especially as the Technical Association is prepared to assist financially by the gift of equipment and cash valued at £250. The Government is finding large sums for expenditure for less worthy objectives in other districts, and surely the small sum required to meet the needs of the association could be found without difficulty. So far as the shortage of carpenters and. skilled tradesmen is concerned, we are sure that if the Education Department supplied the money and the plans, there would not be a great difficulty in obtaining „ from the district carpenters^ and other skilled workers capable of constructing the simple building desired by the association. It is sincerely to be hoped that next year, when the classes are commenced, the county will possess its lorig-looked-for and greatlyneeded technical education builcl ing, the provision of which is more than justified by the needs of the district primary schools for a manual training centre at Leeston, quite apart from the use that would be made of the building and equipment by the Technical Association.