The Hand and Eye.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 28

The Hand and Eye.

Attention is briefly directed iu a local elsewhere to the valuable work now being done by the Wellington School of Design, which is directed with so much ability and earnestness by Mr Arthur Riley. The subject cannot, however, be properly dismissed with such brevity of notice, more especially as much misconception seems to exist among persons, otherwise well-informed, as to the character and scope of the instruction afforded. Many people may and do say:— “ Drawing is all very well in its way, but there are plenty of other things far more important for pupils to b 8 taught.” This is virtually a rechauffe of the old, ignorant objee tion to the teaching of Latin and Greek in schools. The fallacy, of course, lies in the idea that the dead languages are taught merely for the sake of their own intrinsic merits, the fact being that, while the knowledge of Latin and Greek is in itself directly useful to all professional men and to many others, this is not the chief motive of their being taught. The true object is to train and disciplinethe mental powers, as are the physical powers by gymnastic exercises. Schoolboys are not drilled in gymnastics in order that they may excel one another on the bar or the trapeze, but to develop their muscular strength. So the classics are taught less for their own value —great though that be—than as a means of mental development. And in like manner it is the great merit of the institution under notice that it does very much more than merely to teach its members to draw pretty things. Were that all, it would be largely inapplicable to that considerable proportion of the community who have no artistic impulses or capacities. Drawing lessons, for art’s own sake, would be as utterly wasted on these as are the music lessons so ruthlessly forced on children having no musical ability, who are thus simply trained to be a future torment to their friends. But Mr Riley’s scheme tends in quitea different direction. His disciples may notall—or nearly all—turn, out artists, still they cannot go through his course without having reaped substantial benefit. The great advantage derived from the method of instruction pursued is the training and discipline of the eye, the hand, the memory, and the judgment. This is the very first essential in the groundwork of that technical (or manual) education which we have so often and so strongly advocated. The eye has first to be educated. There are numbers of people who have no precise or accurate idea of either form or colour. They are not aware of their own deficiencies, and may be subject to serious inconvenience and misconception in consequence. In the School of Design they soon discover their shortcomings, and are shown how to correct them. The eye is led to see accurately, and the hand to set down accurately what the eye sees. This may seem to the superficial observer a very simple affair, but it really involves a co-ordination in the action of the nerves and muscles which does not “ come by nature,” as do “ reading and writing ” according to one eminent authority. The eye must learn to estimate size—how ignominiously it fails to do this spontaneously is amusingly illustrated by the familiar “ catch ” of guessing the height of a hat—and to discriminate between colours and among th6ir different shades. The hand must learn not merely to respond to the guidance of the eye, but also fc act with freedom, boldness, deeisior. nd precision in giving definite and practical shape to the forms pictured by the eye to the brain. And these faculties are, as we have said, among the first essentials of technical education. These lacking, nothing can supply their place. These once acquired, the student can go onward and utilise his or her new faculties in almost an infinity of different directions. In

engineering and architecture; in mechanics, building, cabinet-making, carpentering, and construction of machinery ; in designing patterns for textile fabrics, the ornamentation of surfaces, the illustration of magazines, books, and papers, and, iu short, in a multitude of various ways the training becomes of incalculable benefit, and instruction is afforded in all these applications of the first principle—the intelligent co-operation of eye, hand, and brain. On this aspect of the matter we may touch further another day. Our piesent object is to impress the value of the work being done, and to urge that all possible facilities shall be afforded for its development. At present it is carried on in an utterly inadequate and unsuitable building. This drawback ought to be removed without loss of time, and, if we are really to become an industrial community, every possible encouragement should bo given to the important educational work now being prosecuted by Mr Riley and his associates, which ought te effect great things in the way of preparing thoroughly skilled labour in readiness for the prosecution of the various industries when established.