A TECHNICAL AND TRAINING COLLEGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12385, 21 June 1902, Page 6

A TECHNICAL AND TRAINING COLLEGE.

The Education Board Ims adopted, almost unanimously and practically without any discussion, the proposals of the Rev. 1\ B. Fraser, which we discussed four weeks ago, for founding in Dunedin a training college, technical school, and art gallery under one roof. 'Ine only objection to the scheme came from Mr Thomas Mackenzie, who opposed it on the ground that if an art gallery wore included in the proposed building an injury would be caused to the public gallery which is already in existence in Dmicdin. To those who know the history of the present gallery and of the difficulties under which it lias been, and i«, maintained, it will seem strange that anv opposition should, 011 its account, have been raised to Mc Eraser's proposals. The gallery at the Museum, Mr Mackenzie said at the meeting of the Board, is a very good one. So it is if it is to the collection of the pictures that the term " gallery " is applied, but 110 one will dream (if asserting that the building in which the gallery is housed possesses anv of the

attributes of excellence. It is a mere makeshift designed to do duly until such time as the city of Dunedin sluill provido herself, or be provided by some public benefactor, with a suitable structure 111 which to preserve the works of art that may be acquired by purchase or gift for the benefit of the community; and even as a makeshift it so indifferently serves the purpose, that the trustees of the gallery have been compelled to remove from ib some of the nirtures that were hung on the walls as it was found that they were suffering damage. There is, indeed, a very urgent need in Dunedin at the present time for the establishment of a public art- gallery, and if Ml' leaser's .scheme is broad enough to include provision for the construction of a gallery of Mich a character that tlm pictures now at the Museum might be transferred to it the present trustees of the public art gallery will he more likely to welcome than In resent the. proposal. Donations are occasionally made to the gallery at the Museum—it has recently been our pleasant duty to record the gift 'hv different donors of two important work;, —but so long asthere is a danger of the deterioration of the pictures from conditions arising from the nnsuitahilitv of the building not much encouragement is offered to patrons of art to add to the collection liy the presentation of valuable paintings. If Mr. Eraser's proposals are carried out and an art gallery is provided in connection with the technical college and training college which he wishes to see established, it is possible that the difficulties which have hitherto presented themselves in connection with the establishment in Dunedin of a public art gallery which shall he 11 credit to the city may, by the co-opera-tion of the Education Hoard with the 1-i'ustees of the public art gallery, be satisfactorily overcome. The execution of the whole of the scheme to which the Education Board has given its endorsement is dependent, however, upon thatbody having a large sum of money placed at its disposal. For the funds for the erection of the art gallery Mr Fraser looks to the public; from tho' Government he hopes to get the sum — estimated ov him at £7000—required for tho establishment of the technical college and training college. The Minister of Education can hardly, it should be supposed, refuse the modest grant that would ho sufficient to provide a training college, for the need of such an institution has long been recognised by the. department which he controls. An application for funds for the erection of a technical college can also be strongly supported by the Board when it makes its request for assistance, Now that- tho property which had been acquired by the Technical Classes Association lias been transferred from that excellent- organisation to the Education Hoard, under whose control the school will practically be conducted in future, the Minister of Education may possibly take the ground that the Government has already assisted the Board to a considerable extent by the grants it has made in favour of the Association, but tho Hoard is in a position to make an effective reply by pointing -to the splendid as-,et it lias secured ill the building at present occupied by tho technical classes and in the appliances with which it has been equipped. A community that has provided itself, with occasional help from the Government, with such a valuable property in the cause of technical education can fairly :laini that it lias done sufficient to entitle it to the assistance that Mr Eraser n'ould crave from the State to enable the Education Board to give effect to his Bcheme.