TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11462, 28 December 1897, Page 3

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, —We are often advised not to expect too much from new laws, and, above all things, that as a people we must not expect to ho made moral by Act of Parliament. One feels inclined to believe that there is a measure of truth in this. But when we come to technical education and see the time approaching when an Act will he in force with regard to it, we ask ourselves, Can we possibly expect too much from such an Act ? It seems to me that even the solution of the poverty problem may be but slightly concealed in it, for I think we may allow ourselves to hope that a State that educates its children as it present, and then goes on to give them technical and manual instruction, will not stop just there, but will carry the matter to a logical conclusion, and not only see to it that every boy and girl is prepared to be a worker, but also is required to be a worker; and with the extinction of idleness, we are quite sure, there will he a tendency towards the extinction of vice and pauperism. I am perfectly well aware that this proposition is moat distasteful to a large number of people, who, for some reasons best known to themselves, but guessed at by many, do not favour any such., extinctions as those I have mentioned.. I should like to be allowed to make as suggestion on this same subject of technical education. Whilst acknowledging the importance of trades and manufactures, and a due preparation for them by trainingin all their branches, I think we are always inclined to overlook tho deep necessity fiat exists for bringing boys and girls up, educating them, with a view to their taking up agricultural pursuits. If we could have these and all the branches of farming brought under a Technical Education Act, what a grand prospect might be opened up for young New Zealanders. I have recently read in some paper that atrial has been made of teaching young* people to raise crops and rear animals with excellent results. I know that' sometimes country life is dreaded because it is associated with long hours of labour and poor pay. We may reasonably hope that New Zealanders will soon make very short work of long hours of labour, recognising, as wo are all beginning to do, that the higher life is for all, and not for any chosen favoured few. Like the air, the land, the water, brains are the good gift of a beneficent Creator, and workers are beginning to see that their heritage of brain power is as valuable to them as to any class of the community. The workers are also beginning to see that in the cultivation of their powers lies their ability to redeem themselves from the tyranny of the cultured and greedy. Under the new Municipal Act, doubtless, the many centres that would spring up would make the whole country different and much more sociable and lively, and so the dread of a dull life in tho country would pass away. It appears that the difficulty of disposing of the now generation of workers amongst the branches of industry is very great. Surely tho solution is not in cramming as many as possible into an already crowded area, but in dispersing the population through the country, so that, every way, untold advantages would be reaped from the inclnsioa. - of farming;

amongst plans for technical education. —I am, Ac., • LOUISA BLAKE.