WORK WELL DONE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 98, 28 April 1931, Page 8

WORK WELL DONE

All who have been associated with the Technical College will share the regret of the Board at the retirement oi' the Director, Mr. J. H. Howell. When Mr. Howell became direclor the college had still to contend with accommodation difficulties. It was crowded and divided, and thus seriously handicapped in carrying on its work. These difficulties have been surmounted, and the College has now the corporate strength which it could not possibly attain under the conditions that formerly existed. Mr. Howell has never lost sight of the importance of the corporate feeling in raiding the status of the Technical College. It is, indeed, of the greatest moment. One of the major problems in New Zealand education to-day is to persuade parents that the grammar school type of education may not be the most suitable for their boys — that the education given at the technical colleges,' though different, is not inferior. ,|But old ideas are hard to move. They can be corrected only gradually !by demonstrating that the technical colleges are capable of supplying the liberal education which is the best preparation for a full life. Mr. Howell has steadily and successfully pursued this aim while he has been director, and not the least of his achievements is that he has raised the status of technical education in the minds of the public.