SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1908. TECHNOLOGY IN WELLINGTON "To Be or Not to Be?"

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 402, 14 March 1908, Page 6

SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1908. TECHNOLOGY IN WELLINGTON "To Be or Not to Be?"

"Youir Committee think it would be an excellent idea if the Premier, the Right Hon. Sit J. G. Ward, and the Hod. G. Fowlds, Minister for Education, would pay a day and night visit to the school. 'Seeing is believing.'" • • • THIS wholesome recommendation closed the report of a special Committee of the Industrial Association orni the subject of the Wellington Technical School. The repoirt was submitted to the Association oca Tuesday evening last, and was drawn up as a result of the Committee's visit to the Technical School on February 24th. No one who knows anything at all of the conditions under whlich instruction is carried on at the School will cavil at the suggestion made by the Committee. It would have been a very reasonable request to make straight out, without leaving the matter >at the stage of mere suggestion . The fact that a second deputation on this subject to the Minister for Education has become necessary is somewhat surprising. No more important phase of education is calling for conrsideration in the Empire City to-day than that of techpnology. Its advantages are being so widely availed of that the matter is made one of absorbing importance. Yet it is painfully apparent that the whole institution is being robbed of its supposed advantages by reason of the cramped and impossible conditions under which its work is being attempted. • « • The Board have made a claim for a site for the Technical School at Mount Cook, and a few weeks ago we poanted out the absolute necessity of something being done in this direction. Our argument on that occasion was built up on -the conditions which obtained in the Technical Sdhioal last year. The need has, however, been greatly increased by the developments succeeding on the opening of the school for the first term this year. The official report states that this year the number is far in excess of any previous term, and a three days' delay (referred to) was absolutely necessary, as considerable ingenuity had to be used to find a way oi accommodating the classes. There aore now 1000 students attending the school, and those who know the size of the rooms and building can draw their own conclusions as to the "packing" which is necessary. • • • Never in the history of the School was it so manifest that the building is now absurdly unsuitable for the purposes to which it as put. The Director has informed the Committee that the cramped condition ot the School is a real source of danger to the future of technical education in thus city. In view of the daily applications which are being made for admission, the question arises ho>w are all of the applicants to be accommodated. It is an impossible task. Hence we say again that something must be done to relieve the situation, and that something must be done speedily. * « • It is farcical for the Education Department to offer free technical education to those who pass the sixth standard in the public schools if they cannot be admitted. The desire for technical education on Uhe part of students is being encouraged by the Government.

That is welL But unless the Government makes the necessary provision for students it will be guilty of a very seraous default in its duty to the people of this city. The Mount Cook site has everything to recommend it, -and so fan- we have not been, able to discover a single argument against the adoption of the Technical School Board's suggested scheme foi budding there.