MORE ROOM WANTED

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 9

MORE ROOM WANTED

FOR THE TECHNICAL COLLEGE THE CALL UPON THE GOVERNMKNT. The inadequate accommodation at tho Wellington Technical School, or College, as it is now known, though there in nothing in the buildings- so imposing as the name, has been a to all r interested in technical education in this city for a number of years past. Fou something like ten years the college has been carrying on its work under great difficulties, and it says much for the ability and energy of the staff that it baa been able to hold its own against tho far finer-equipped institutions in Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Auckland has spent £30,000 on its technical college ond is asking for another £50,000 to complete its equipment for technical' education. Christchurch, quite apart f rom its School of Arts and Engineering School at Canterbury College, has a new' technical college, which coßt about-J3jL-t,OOO. _ Dunedin has just laid out £30,000 in\ a new technical college just completed. Outside the capital city the three big centres then have each modern buildings equipped for technical instruction after the latest methods. ' WELLINGTON'S DISABILITIES. In Wellington, meanwhile, tho work is carried on in five different places. Part of the work is done in. rooms bolonging to the Wellington Education. Board; .part is done in the Industrial Atsßjeiation'e building. Across th« strt-et is another building where another branch of tho work is conducted. Then there are classes in a rough iron shed in the yard of the Town Hall. Two rooms are leased in Willis-street for continuation classes and four rooms in tho V.M.C.A. building for mechanics &ndi allied subjects. Under such circumstances, in buildings not co-ordinated nor designed for teaching the staff of the school — one hesitates to call lit "college" until it gets a tetter home— have striven hard for years past to keep up the standard— a task that they hatebeen successful in performing only by the most strenuous efforts. Practically the accommodation at the school is nob half in. extent what it should be, quite apart from the general ttnsuitability of the premises for teaching, lb is not so much that the students themselves are cramped—though that is bad enough. The real evil is that there is no loom for the apparatus, the appliances, the plant, the equipment for adequate teaching. The days when elementary equipment and primitive conditions! weie_ tolerable, are long gone by. and if Wellington is' to keep its ena up it is high time that the work oi securing the site and building the new college was started. Without the new building there is no room for growth, and that means that the scope of usefulness of the institution is limited. It is rathe? typical of the Wellington public that it allows for year after year one of the most important branches of education to be conducted under the conditions at present existing here. HOPE DEFERRED YET RENEWED., As long ago as 1909 the Director (Mr. W. 8. La, Trobe) reported to the Technical Education Board on the proposed buildings and equipment for the nftw Technical College. The site then in view was botween Waliaee-stl'eet and Crawford -street, with Hutchison-road cutting off the section at an awkward angle. Full plans and specifications and estimates were got out, but the site fell short of final approval, and again Hhe scheme for a building worthy of Wellington had, to lie in abeyance. Since then the matter of accommodation has come up again and again, and last year a good deal was done to adv.ince the proposals. The 'City Council decided to vote £10,000 as a contribution toward? tho institution, and «, sit© was kept 5n ' view ' which was generally satisfactory to all parties concerned— the board, the Department, the director, and the Government. But money was wanted, as i the estimated cost of the building will not be belovr what was spent in' the other centres. The Government did not come to light with the money, and thus the Bchemo, was delayed another year. It is understood, however, that there is likely to bo a more favourable response to th<* application for funds this year, and those who have the interests of technical education in Wellington close at heart ai r p hoping before the year. is out to Bee the ground prepared' and (he foundations laid of a building which will do credit to this city and provide adequate op.*, portunities for the teacher to do his work and the student toa'eap the utmost profit by it.