THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1909. THE TECHNICAL COLLEGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14000, 4 March 1909, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1909. THE TECHNICAL COLLEGE.

The methods of centralised government unmistakably . hamper the efforts of local authorities in progressive districts to make provision not merely for present necessities but also for the demands of the immediate future. ; This was very * vividly brought home to the Auckland Board >of Education yesterday by the shortage of supplies caused by the Departmental allocation of capitation grants being now based upon the full year's attendance at our schools instead of upon the last quarter's attendance as was hitherto the method. This change means little in Southern school districts where population increases slowly and the December attendances are much the' same as the March, but it means much to our Auckland country where population increases by leaps and bounds and where school attendances are greater by several thousands during the ' course of a single year. We hope that Mr. Fowlds, who knows the local conditions, will rectify what would appear to be an oversight on the part of the Departmental officials; and we further hope that he will consider the same influences as they affect technical education and will induce the Cabinet to grant the additional £12,000 required to build the Technical College upon the moderate lines proposed by the Board. It is possible, of course, to erect a much smaller building or to fall back I upon inferior material, but considering all the circumstances the Government will hardly lay" itself open to the charge of favouritism if it enables the Auckland Education Board to carry out its very reasonable plans. For. Greater Auckland has already passed the 100 000 popu-lation-mark, as has been statistically demonstrated by the Health Officer, and within the next quarter century will double these figures. It is quite impolitic, not to say unfair, to treat this great metropolis as though ; its growth were on a par with cities not so advantageously situated and it would be, further, a lamentable waste of public money to economise J by failing to make provision for its | assured future. The B plans of the 1 Board allow for an ultimate extension of the proposed college building, but it would be most inadvisable to so reduce it as to be forced into extension, the moment the original section is completed, thus com-

pelling either a costly rebuilding; in the speedy future or the destruction

'or all time of the ; harmonious pro-

portions of what should be a stately I and admirable public edifice. As I for inferior materials we have surely had too much makeshift in Auckland already. ; Education in all its branches is a national and not a local matter, and when our citizens subscribed a good many thousands of pounds to enable a creditable Technical College to be erected # they voluntarily lightened the burden of the General Government to that extent and may fairly demand in return the erection of a building , which will be a permanent embellishment to the city. The recognised national duty of education makes it impossible to accept the suggestion of Mr.* George, j that the city should raise a loan for building the Technical College. It

is good that a director of technical education should be so engrossed in his work and plans as to be eager to

ride loose-reined over all impediments and difficulties, ; but Mr. Parr was indubitably , correct when he told the Board that there was not even " Buckley's chance" of • the ratepayers raising such a loan.- For whether the Government recognises the growing power of Auckland ,or not our local authorities have been forced to do so, and the making of sufficient provision for future needs is straining all their energies. This growth is what perpetually 'baffles the Education Board, depending ; as it does upon Departmental supplies ; but it no less worries those local bodies which have independent sources of revenue. We should tread on the heels of our water supply ,if work ceased for a year or two. We are desperately behind with our drainage, while closelybuilt streets and roads' are stretching . out r towards the; Tamaki, the Manukau, and the Whau.. We have not yet any margin in our wharfage facilities, and it is doubtful if the completion of the scheme which Southern engineers declared to be too ambitious will give us the margin so necessary to popular ports. Mayors like Mr. Myers, and Harbour Board chairmen like Mr. Mitchelson, may shrewdly arrange our finances so that we | manage to meet the ever-increasing needs of the day and the hour, but it will . be generations before the City of Auckland j lesser or greater, can hope to 'settle down into the comfortable financial position ; that only 'comes with" full

growth. It is, therefore, useless to think that we - can assume locally a duty that is wholly national, and to sustain. which our citizens already contribute in endless ways to the Consolidated Revenue. 3' Auckland is the milch cow of the Dominion, • and <; ought to .get back ; from! the

Wellington creamery enough skim-

milk for its calves. It -is little enough, in all reason, for a swiftlygrowing metropolis of over 100,000 people to ask for a special grant of £12,000 to enable a proper Technical College to be erected. . For, although! technical education is a comparatively ■'■■■. recent extension of our educational system, it is none the less part and parcel thereof. Rival secondary school champions i may rail at one another, after a fashion which tends to strengthen the popular belief that men, like chameleons, | take colour from their surroundings, and \;that those who associate much with the young are blessed in some mysterious manner ; with "■';-" perpetual youth; but this does not affect the acceptance of technology as "a great; national weapon with : which to arm j our people in the fierce'struggle for that material '. prosperity without which we are ho more likely to be intellectually and artistically great than the Greeks would have been without their helots and the leisure helotage gave them. The Government owes it to Auckland to assist in the erection of a Technical College sufficient for the growing ; requirements, and we rely on Mr. Fo wlds to I obtain this assistance for us if the financial position of;the Dominion is what Sir Joseph Ward assures us it is. ,\ ,