TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 112, 13 May 1914, Page 3

TECHNICAL COLLEGE

WORKING UNDER DIFFICULTIES NEED OF A PROPER BUILDING. The work of the Wellington Technical College is seriously hindered owing to the totally inadequate and Unsuitablerooms in which the instruction is being given. Its classrooms are in no fewer than five buildings in different parts of the city. In the Education Board build' ing in Mercei -street there are the art rooms, whicli include an elementary art ■room, a model drawing room, a. life room, a' modelling and cauting room on th© first floor. The art crafte room is on the first floor of tho college workshops. The commercial classes are conducted partly in the V.M.C.A. Building, Willie-6tT£et. Domestic economy, cooking, etc., is taught in a corrugated iron structure in the corporation yard behind the Town Hall. Opposite the Board of Education Buildings, in Mercer-street, there aro the, Workshops, comprising fitting, turning^ pattern-making, moulding, and smithing, carpentry, and plumb* ing shops. Other branches of study are taken in rooms near the corner of Mercer and Willis streets. . AN INSPECTION. It was. intended last evening to demonstrate to the Minister of Education, Hon. J. Allen, the pressing need for the construction, of a proper Technical College building, but the' Minister wrote stating that the visit cf Sir lan Hamilton, liißpector'General of the Oversea Forces, prevented hiss being, able to attend. Tho members of the board, how-, ever, in tho absence of the Minister, inspected the various rooms, and saw the difficulties under which the students do their work. The members of the board present were :-- Messrs. D. Robertson (chairman), W. H. Field, Goo. Frost, and W. Allan. They were conducted over t-he. scattered rooms by tho Director, Mr. W. S. La Trobe. An examination of the rooms clearly demonstrated that hardly one of them was suitable for the purpose for which it is used. Few of them are provided wath proper lighting, either during tho day or night, and the accommodation for the number of studehts is wretchedly inadequate. All the members of the board agreed that the students are not getting a fair chance in carrying on their studies, and it is impossible for the director to properly supervise the work being done in the scattered buildings. Notwithstanding the many drawbacks, it is pleasing to note that a number of the students 1 are doing excellent work— a proof of their assiduity and skill and the ability of the teach* ing staff, CONTRASTS. By way of contrast • with the neglect of Wellington in this respect, it may be mentioned that in Auckland they have a Technical College which' cost some £30,00p, and in Dunedin a building has just been completed at an expenditure of about the same amount. Christchurch has its fine School of Eligineering Techhical College, which cost about £14,000, and, in addition, there is a separate school of Art there. The members of the Wellington Technical College Board are emphatic in their declaration that the interests 1 of the students in this city are ' suffering for the want ,of a proper technical college building. AIMS OF COLLEGE. ■ ■ , The scope of the college work,' it may be added, is limited to subjects in which instruction ,is either presently or prospectively of direct advantage from the educational, industrial, or commercial point of view. The aim of tho college is to prepare students in callings In which there is a steady demand for trained workers ; to provide special training ml the branches of his trade with which , a workman .or apprentice does not become familiar during working hours j ■ and to provide preliminary training for boys and girls, destined for industrial or commercial - life.