Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1885. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7141, 20 April 1885, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1885. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.

Some time ago we referred to an article in the Contemporary Review by Mr Samuel Smith, M.P. for Liverpool, on the subject of the industrial training of i destitute children. Mr Smith, we notice, returns to the charge in the same | magazine, and makes an eloquent appeal for tho rescue of the many thousands of young people who seem doomed to the same wretched fate as their progenitors. "It is intolerable," he aaya, " that millions of people should exist in oar midst unable to live except on charity, because they have been taught in youth no means of livelihood. The little smattering of education got in our national schools by the children of this class is almost rubbed off them in the critical yeara that succeed school life ; it enables them to read the Police News, the Newgate Calendar, and such like rubbish, which is the chief literature that circulates in the slumg. One sometimes wonders whether this socalled education does not in tho case of many only multiply their power for evil. The real education they most of all need is not given— the habit of steady, useful industry, the ability to turn their handß readily to any useful calling, and the power to fit themselves for a decent life, either at home or in the colonies. On the Continent, under the name of ' technical training,' prodigious efforts are being made, especially by France, Germany, and Switzerland, to cultivate the taste and talent of artizans, and they are extending them in a lower grade of schools, and in some places are requiring children to attend ' Continuation Schools ' at night up to the age of sixteen. But these countries do not need the precise thing that we require in Great Britain ; they have not nearly so many neglected children, nor so large a residuum of drunken and depraved parents. With us the case is far more urgent — we have terrible arrears of neglect to overtake ; we were the last of the Stateß to enforce national compulsory education, and we shall have to do double work for many years to get abreast of the more advanced nations." Mr Smith's idea is to make industrial training compulsory by superadding it to the regular school course. " The boys," he says, "should be taught carpentry, tailoring, shoemaking, printing, &c. ; the girls sewing, washing, and domestic economy as far as possible. Some of these branches could easily be carried on in the existing school-rooms without injuring the furniture ; others might require a shed or some cheap structure added for the coarse work. The teaching of the boys might be given by skilled artizans, whose wages for two or three hours per evening would not be very high. Ido not believe that the whole cost of training half-a-million of children in this way need exceed half-a-miilion sterling per annum — say, £1 per head—whereas pauperism and crime cost the State fifteen millions a year, and mostly spring from the neglected children of this class." Mr Smith expresses a confident conviction that, if the system were adopted, the heavy tax caused by pauperism and crime would be reduced by one-half within a generation, and he thinks it would be a good thing if manual training were made a part of all school education. " I should recommend," he says, " that Eton as well as Seven Dials should have industrial education. No country in the world produces so many helpless people among the middle and upper classes as England does. An unwholesome contempt for hand labor runs through all ' good society,' as it is falsely called; and so it is that when families are left destitute, as frequently happens among our impoverished gentlefolk, it ia found that none of them can earn their bread; neither sona nor daughters can emigrate, for there is nothing they can do that is of any use in the busy and practical communities of the New World. I believe that in far more cases than is generally supposed 'decayed' families in the upper and middle classes are supported by charity. I much doubt, if an accurate census were taken of the self-supporting part of the population, whether it would not be found that as large a proportion of the people who wear broad cloth are in reality paupers as of those who wear fustian. There! could not be a greater social boon conferred on this country than by engrafting on our educational system universally the teaching of Some manual trade. Physical labor, well directed and not overdone, is the truest recreation; there is nothing that boys are fonder of than learning handicrafts. When the taste is onoe formed, and the habit fixed, the boya'may be left to take care of themselves. They will not often relapse into the indolent, hopeless life oommon to their class. A thousand avenues of useful employment will open to them which are at present olosed. They will find that they are welcome emigrants to every new country ia the world." In illustration of bis ideas Mr

Smith gives a description of Dr Barnard's homes, where 700 boys, rescued from the worst of the slums, are being trained to various trades. In support of his contention for making industrial training compulBory Mr Smith quotes the following from " The Gaol Cradle-Who Rocks It ?" :— *' A compulsory labor law, however undesirable in itself, is rendered absolutely necessary by varied and complicated causes, but by one chiefly, viz., the worthless character of many parents — necessary as a protection to the State. What do the selfish animalised parents know of parental responsibilities, or care for the use or abuse of youth, the solemn duties of citizens, the basis of society, the weal of the State ? Yet all these things are involved in their action towards their children. Themselves living from hand to mouth, they feel that it is right to turn out their children, regardless of all future consequences, on the chance of their somehow picking up a copper or two. It is probable that every day not less than 70,000 boya and girls aro (hobjobbing ' about, utterly helpless, until they hob-job into gaols, penitentiaries, or reformatories."

"Jottings at Random" will be found on the fourth page.

The unfavorable weather prevailing on Saturday caused the postponement of the advertised costume cricket match. Arrangements are in progress for securing the Recreation Ground for a future date.

That wonderful case, Bowes v. Howard, is not done with yefc. It was proceeded with again on Saturday, and the evidence of witnesses and the addresses of counsel were completed. His Worship reserved judgment till the 28th 'Jnsfc. Somebody will hare a big bill of costs to pay.

It is considered that the s.s. Thomas Russell, whioh. recently ran ashore on the Auckland coast, will have to be abandoned. Those lately attempting to get the vessel off are so convinced of the uselessness of their efforts that they have now cut a hole in the vessel's side in order to get the machinery out.

A man named Scbythe, employed at Mr J. S. Large's, and well known in town, died very suddenly on Saturday evening. He was sitting quietly at a table in a reom at his residence, Shakespeareroad, between 9 and 10 o'clock, and expired almost without warning. An inquest will be held to-day at the Occidental Hotel.

Mr and Mrs Baldwin, thought readers, clairvoyants, &c, who will shortly open a season in Napier, are now doing good business in Canterbury. The performers are too well known throughout the colonies to need commendation at our hands, but it may be mentioned that the southern Press are giving some very flattering notices of the wonderful feats said to be performed by Mrs Baldwin.

Mr P. F. Jacobsen, a prominent Canterbury chess player, arrived in Napier on Saturday by the boat from South, and intends to settle here and practise as an architect if sufficient inducement offers. On the Tsth instant, just before his departure from Ohrlstchurch, Mr Jacobsen was entertained by the Canterbury Chess Club, and was presented with a handsome testimonial referring to his abilities as a player and his amiable obaracter as a citizen.

At the Resident Magistrate's Court on Saturday, before Mr <3K A. Preece, R.M., Henry Clarke pleaded guilty to a charge of drunkenness, and was fined 5s and costs, with 48 hours' hard labor in default. The money was paid. — Frederick do Lacy, against whom three previous convictions within a very short period were recorded, pleaded guilty to a charge of drunkenness, and was sentenced to 14 days' hard labor. — Mary Alice Ray, repeatedly convicted for drunkenness, was charged with being an habitual drunkard, and was sentenced to one month's hard labor.

The Hawke's Bay Sailing Club have been very unfortunate in having bad weather on several Saturday afternoons lately. Last Saturday there was far too heavy a sea running in the bay to allow of the second heat for Mr Vautier's trophy to be sailed, and next Saturday afternoon the tide won't suit for a sailing race outside ,* so this puts the closing of the sailing season still further oft. After the possession of Mr Vautier's trophy is decided there will be Mr Bell's cup to be sailed for. This race will only be one heat. It would be much better if the committee of the club could induce Mr Bell to alter his regulations so as to admit of the race for his cup being sailed in the inner harbor. The race could then come off next Saturday, and so enable the sailing season, already unduly prolonged, to be closed somewhat sooner.

Mr Vollbracht left for Auckland on Saturday, but will return in a fortnight to personally superintend the packing of Mr Ormondß crop of tobacco — about four tons. This will be taken to Auckland, and there manufactured into cigars and tobacco, a portion of which, if not the whole, will be sent to Hawke'a Bay as a practical illustration of the quality of the tobacco grown here. It will take about four months to put the leaf through the various processes. Mr Vollbracht informs us that he has already arranged for one hundred acres to be put in crop next year, and expects to receive many more applications for seed before the planting season, He wishes to impress, upon growers the absolute necessity for implicitly following his instructions if they mean to grow marketable tobacco, and if any are in doubt on any point he desires that they will communicate with Mr Fred. Fulton, the local agent of the company.

A correspondent of the Lyttelton Times writes : — Though there is a considerable outcry as to want of work, a proportion of those seeking employment are either physically incapable or unwilling to undertake actual hard work. Last week, hands being wanted at one oE the grain stores to unload trucks, men were invited to undertake the work and were promised a shilling per hour: This failed to get them, although several promised to go down. The more conscientious declined point blank, on the ground that the work was too bard.

Surely no one can say a word against the commercial morality of the capital o£ New Zealand after reading the following paragraph, which appears in a local fiaper : — " A Chinese resident of Weiington has been summoned to appear at the Resident Magistrate's Court to answer a charge of haying committed a breach of the city bye-laws a few days ago by flying a kite within the municipal boundaries." A commercial town in which " kiteflying" is a prohibited diversion is indeed a phenomenon. After this disclosure nobody will have the effrontery to aik a Wellington man to "do a bill." Probably in that exceedingly virtuous place they don't even know the meaning of the phrase. -~Timanc Berald.

The Melbourne Sportsman of the 25th. March contains the particulars of a most extraordinary agreement which was made in Sydney lately between Donald Dinnie, the Scotoh athlete, and Foley, the pugilist, for a " go-as-you-pleaae tight for £1000. The two competitors were to be shut in a largo room by themselves for half-an-hour, and were to me any means they liked to disable one another, provided that onlybodny force was employed. M at the end of 30 minutes Foley was able to come to time, he waa to be proclaimed the winner of the fight. " Choking or breaking an opponent's leg to be all fair, bat no

wood, metal, or sfcone of any kind/tdjjej used." Foley's backer actually -de^ posited the whole of his stake, but atfhefj last moment Dinriie withdrew fromthejl contest, which, had it eventuated, wbul&| have been about the most brutal ori| record. ■'"•:_ .-' ft The negro minstrel can hardly sin gl, with truth now, "Hard times conwi|gam^ no more." A newspaper comspionaeafc; \ writing from Chicago, says; — "Trade in r' the United States in its every department is in a most unsatisfactory condition. So far as can be seen by a sweep of its horizon, there is not a glint of silver - lining to the sombre cloud that on all, sides closes in the view. The journals .-■ are daily filled with, failures of banks, -\ manufacturing companies, and mercantile houses ; with the shutting down of iron; steel, woollen, cotton, carpet, thread,' silk, and other mills ; and with, notices of

cuts in the rates of wages, which in most :■ instances have been submitted to, but ; which in many have been resisted T>y strikes. In this city ifc is estimated that from 25,000 to 30,000 mechanics, clerks, and laborers are wholly out of employ-, ment. Mendicancy promises to become with us a permanent institution.'.' ,

In an address delivered by Sir Charles Dilke before the Bradford Chamber of. Commerce recently he said : "To turn to the consideration of the wool and woollen trade in general, I find from figures furnished to . me by one of the two able secretaries of the Royal Commission for tho French negotiations — Mr, Bateman, of the Board of Trade— that a change is taking place in the sources of the wool supply. The number of sheep in Europe is decreasing. In Belgium, Hungary, Germany, and Austria the decrease is large ; there is a decrease in France, a large increase in Italy, and a small increase in Russia; but, on the whole, a considerable decrease for Europe. . In Australia and New Zealand there has been an increase in 10 years of from 59 to 80 millions of sheep — that is, of 36 per cent. In the United States there has been a large increase of from 36 millions to 50J millions in eight years, but 3Sforth America is not a wool-exporting country. Our total imports of wool have increased from 344 million pounds in 1874 to 1 519 I millions in 1884— an increase of 50 per cent. We now get 8 per cent, instead of 10 per cent, from Europe, and 4 per cent, instead of 7 per cent, from South America ; while Australia and New Zealand send us now three-fourths, instead of two-thirds, of the whole."

The following anecdote of Edison is put forward by an American exchange. '. An inventor who had made the cure of deafness his special study has bi&Lght out an alleged electrical device.,foin&at purpose, which he conceals in a -cane t and which is said to effect a permanent oure. Having forwarded his new invention to Mr Edison, whose partial deafness is generally known, he was surprised not to receive any reply. A reporter, of the New York Sun being sent to Mr Edison to ask for his opinion on the subject was surprised to ascertain that the distinguished- inventor had not found leisure to give it a trial; that he had no desire to be relieved of deafness ; in fact, that he would not permit himself to be cured for 10,000dol. The reasons he gave for this unexpected statement should satisfy every busy man that congratulations rather than sympathy should be extended to the deaf. " There are," said Mr Edison, "lots of things I don't want. to hear ; cars and carts, and licensed vendors in the morning, bores, political speakers, cats, -telephones, and impecunious borrowers of money." There are, of course, certain disadvantages attendant upon such an infirmity, but it has probably been the wish of nearly every individual that he might occasionally be deaf. Possibly there might be a demand for a machine to produce a temporary deafness, and no doubt a fair market could be worked up for it by the persistent efforts, say, of a few canvassers.