ENGINEERS ABROAD

Evening Star, Issue 14531, 6 December 1910, Page 1

ENGINEERS ABROAD

OUR WEAK POINTS. [SI'KtIAL TO THE SIAR.J CHEISTCHUBCH. December 6. Mr Jl. T. ToogCKxl, engineer to the Ilokitika Harbor Board, who w;i& trained in the JiJigiiieering School at Canterbury College, and who afterwards went out to the East to obtain experience, suggested in conversation with a reporter last evening that a scheme might be adopted that would enable students at the Kngineering .School to enter the Public Works Department for a period of two years in order that they might gain a working knowledge of their profession. He said (•hat an experience of that nature ought, to be one of the conditions before obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Civil Engineering. He believed the students would be very willing to take advantage of the opportunity. Provision should be made to prevent the students being "side tracked " in the department, but later on if they proved that they were thoroughly proficient the department might find place* for them on its permanent staff as vacancies occurred. With a scheme like that in operation, students educated at the engineering School would go out into the world much better equipped than was possible at present. No academic institution, could profess to teach an engineer the whole of liie profession. The commercial side was one of the essential parts. Without a thorough knowledge of costs, of correct working methods, and of the management of men, every engineer was liable to make great mistakes. It seemed to him that one of the weaknesses of the system at Canterbury College was in respect to commercial training, and that point would be strengthened if students could enter the Public Works Department under the scheme he had outlined. " .Many of the stndei:ls from the Collego," he added, " have, gone abroad, and nearly all have done well. Hardly a failure can be mentioned in the Jong list. This. T think, is due mainly to the excellence of the material upon which the College had to work a few years ago. Old graduates of Canterbury College can now be found in many parts of the world—as far north as Norway and as far eaet as India and China, while Rome occupy very good positions in America. At the same time, Jhero is no doubt that they would have been much better equipped if before leaving New Zealand they had had a better knowledge of men from an exeiutive point of view, as well as an actual working experience. Personally, I was fortunate enough to have a practical workman's training" before I entered the College. I do not urge that every engineer firft of all should' become a tradesman, but 1 <an see the great difficulty which will faro any young man when he is placed in charge of men and has only a scholastic training to rely upon. If 1 had an opportunity to go through my course again I would* rather po from the College to the department in the way 1 have suggested than gain my practical _ knowledge at the beginning «'( my training in the way I did.