SIB J. LUBBOCK ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9022, 7 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIB J. LUBBOCK ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Sir J. Lubbock, M.P., was present at the annual meeting and distribution of prizes at the School of Science aud Art at Bromley, Kent. The prizes were presented by Lady Lubbock in the presence of a large gathering. Sir John then gave an address to the students. After expressing his pleasure at seeing the school in a healthy condition, he expressed the hope that the science and art and technical schools now springing up throughout the country would do much to promote our material interests, as they certainly would to brighten, purify, and ennoble life. Mr. S. Smith, one of the Commissioners on Technical Education, speaking recently at Stockport, wisely said, as the result of his experience, that it was not so much the longer hours and lower wages of Continental workmen, nor the tariffs, which were having such objectionable influence on our industries, but rather, in nearly all instances, the great attractiveness of the goods themselves, which had been made by workmen who had received special training in schools. If we had spent one tithe of the treasure which we sent abroad every year to buy the produce of the skill of other countries on the training of our own people, we should have been making these goods ourselves and ehipping them to the East and West and to every country under the sun. Wβ were constantly crying out for new markets, while there was a new market in every house in the country. Wβ were apt, indeed, to forget how much we owed to science, because many things which were in reality scientific discoveries had become so familiar to us that we looked upon them almost as a matter of course. The electric light was still felt to be a triumph of science, but we forgot sometimes that the common candle was the result of a whole series of chemical discoveries. The Chinese were said to have examined candidates for the army until lately in the use of bows and arrows. We saw the absurdity of this; but we were not free from the same error ourselves. He sincerely hoped that the association which had been recently founded under the auspices of Lord Hartington might effect much good. But while he felt most anxious on this question, the neglect of or attention to which could not but have an immense effect on the future of our people, he readily admitted that the spirit in which we studied was far more important than what we actually learnt. He asked the students, therefore, what they had in view in attending the classes at that school, and what their object in life was ? However successful they might have been, they must no expect too much. They could not expect to leap into celebrity at a single bound ; mere notoriety was no worthy object. It was the worst wheel in the cart, said an old proverb, which made the most noise.