“THE YOUNG IDEA.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14982, 30 April 1909, Page 6

“THE YOUNG IDEA.”

Or course', the children arc the most important of our “Homo Industries,” but even if there should bo a sceptic to challenge this obvious truth there can be no question that tho littlo people are taking a wide and intelligent interest in tho manufacture of tho various goods -that aro being displayed in the shop windows of Christchurch just now. Budge’s semi-querul-ous complaint that he wanted to “see the wheels go wound” is a part of that classic of childhood, “ Helen’s Babies,” which we all remember, and it is finding its reflection in a more cheery form in our midst this week. A number of the big firms of the city, manufacturers and others, have thrown open their premises for inspection, with certain judicious limitations, during Industries Week, and the children particularly have not been slow to avail themselves of the opportunity of seeing for themselves how their clothes are made, how their boots aro put together, how their food is prepared, and how their newspapers are published. There are few people in the world, high or low, who do not wish to know what others know, and there is no more receptive soil in this respect than 'the minds of tho children. In their own schools they learn of trade flying over a thousand seas, with its spices, its wines, its silk and its corn, but of tho inner workings that go to the preparation of the daily comforts and the daily necessities of life they know practically nothing. The cinematograph, wo have been told, has become a valuable assistant to tho schoolmaster, but even this marvellous contrivance cannot secure the results that are obtained by actually seeing the “ wheels go wound.” Yesterday the “Lyttelton Times ” office, among others, was visited by many eager children with their teachers. The foreman printer complains that they carried away half-a-ton of metal from the printing room with their names carefully inscribed upon the linotype slugs, and that the work of the office has been put weeks behind as a result of their visit. But the foreman printer is a person whoso principal province is to protest, and so long as the littlo ones took away with them some intelligent conception of the manner in which a newspaper is produced, tlx© management will have only pleasant recollections of tho opportunity to contribute something towards their store of knowledge. The shop display which has been organised by the Industrial Association is an admirable method of showing the deed done, but if tho Association can arrange for a more extensive exhibition, under proper limitations, of tho deed in doing it will be helping its cause forward very materially. There are dozens of industries in the province which would cheerfully submit to the trifling inconvenience of personal inspection during a given period if tho Association cared to make tho necessary arrangements, and tho child, as father to tho man, should be tlie first person considered in any scheme of tho kind.