TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 878, 26 September 1868, Page 2

TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION.

Wha* may be termed one of the ' movements' of the present age, consists in the promotion of technical instruction among the "working classes — mechanic and agricultural. It is a truth which all nations are now hastening to recognise, that the success of our industrial pursuits depends materially upon the intelligence of those •who are engaged in them. Capital alone ■will not always suffice to ensure success ; and labour is valuable, in such days of competition as the present, according to its skill. Governments claiming to be paternal pride themselves upon their lavish endowments in aid of national industry ; but experience has shown that lavish expenditure of money is not wanted. The money is too often — il not invariably — spent unwisely, leaving nothing behind to show for it. And of what use can any patronage of this kind be, so long as the labouring classes are left to instruct themselves in the arts they practise? Take the case of agriculture. Every one knows that farming is an occupation which involves a vast amount of technical difficulties ; and that the success of farming depends largely, if not entirely, upon the degree in which those difficulties are met and pvercome. It follows that if any efforts are to be made to promote that success, they Bhould take the shape of technical instruction to the agricultural labourer. To leave the labourer in a state of utter ignorance, as he is too often left; to compel him, -with his darkened and unaided intellect, either to acquire a knowledge oE scientific husbandry as best he may, or to remain ignorant of its principles through life ; such a system can scarcely have any good results for the country in which it nourishes. It seems to be assumed that any one may take to farming -whether he understands it or not ; and that in any case, nothing more is required than a little practical expedience, The result? achieved by farmers

in these colonies up to {§&, p^enfeffcimo ' are notoriously indifr^mt /'tW^fii i all ,the ' apparent v ' advantages' in *; ■ their power,"" otlr farmers have'iurf yet made us independent of foreign countries for breadstuffs. We still look to California and South America for the greater Quantity of our supplies ; and in all probability we shall have to do so for many years to come. Now it may fairly be asked whether tin's dependence on foreign ports is not largely owing to the technical igI norance of our farmers— in plainer words, to their wretched system of farming ? Victoria is an enterprising country; and in that country much public spirit has been shown in the "way of fostering agricultural industry. Prominent among the institutions of the kind stands the Board of Agriculture. Thin body is supposed to have special care of agricultural interests, and for that purpose receives considerable sums of money from the State in addition to its private funds. A vote in aid of agriculture has for many years past appeared upon the Victorian estimates. It is now discovered that the money is mis-spent, and that the Board of Agriculture has left agriculture pretty much where it found it. Its efforts seem to have consisted mainly in periodical shows and distributions of prizes. This sort of thing is all very well, especially as an old established British institution \ but its practical results, so far as agricultural progress is concerned, are absolutely nil. The prizes seem to fall into the laps of a specially favoured few, -while the great body of agriculturists are not in the least improved in their notions of farming. The idea of improving agriculture by means of prizes is akin to the idea of improving education by means of scholarships. So tbe Board of Agriculture in Victoria has fallen into a bad way, and is in danger of being knocked on the head as a punishment for its inefficiency. Its career seems to have satisfied all parties that agriculture requires other means for its elevation ; and none is in greater favour than that of the technical education of young fanners. Precisely similar experience has fallen to the lot of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales. That body has been in existence for a very long -while, and its existence was made known to the general public by the same respectable farce of annual shows and distributions of prizes. Recently it was discovered by the leading members of the Society that they were logically called upon either to retire into private life or to re- organise themselves on a more satisfactory basis. • They adopted the latter course. The Agricultural Society of New South Wales is now modelled in such a manner asto encourage the hope that its efforts for the improvement of pastoral as well as agricultural industry in the colony may be successful. These efforts of course are of a different character from those which were made by the old Society. They point entirely in the direction of honest study, the endeavour being to afford useful information to the squatter and the farmer, and to train up a body of agriculturists thoroughly acquainted with the maturei nature of the soil, the influence of climate, the character of manures, the specialities of Australian farming, and a thousand other matters connected with agriculture. It is also in contemplation, -we understand, to es- j tablish agricultural schools in connection with the public schools throughout the country, in which, special instruction shall be given in all the branches of agricul- | ture. This is one of the most sensible suggestions that has yet been made on the subject. ! S Let us see for a moment what other countries are doing in this way. _ Germany has not acquired much reputation among the nations of the earth as an agricultural country, and yet her legislators have I adopted a system -which other countries would do well to follow. In Prussia, there are four Royal Academies of Agriculture, at -which the rural student is drilled in all the arts and sciences connected with his profession for an annual fee of less than £8. Connected with these Academies, there are nineteen Provincial Schools each of which is conducted by skilled farmers, and others who are versed in ; technical matters. In addition to these institutions, there are schools for administering instruction in special branches of ' agriculture, such as fruit-gardening, j flower-gardening, market-gardening, the! cultivation of meadows and woods, &c. | There are also seven experimental institutes for imparting instruction in organic and agricultural chemistry. These establishments are provided by the State at the public expense—a very small one— and are supervised by a central commission" presided over by a Minister of Agriculture. Around these institutions, and connected with them only by what are termed ties, of aympathy, flourish upwards of five hundred private societies, of the same character. as those which nourish amongst us. Sere we find a thoroughly organised system, supported, at no great cost to the State,

and yet producing a yearly, harvest of skilled agriculturists. Is it imposjab^ip: introduce a similar system in tffl|||rovince? We do not require fo;ffiß»yal Academies, seven. Colleges, and^uieto'en Provincial Schools, with a Minister of 'Agriculture at their head : but if w© had a central institution devoted to aspricultural training in Dunedin, and schools connected with it throughout the Province, we should provide the means of technical education to successive generations, and that at a smaller cost than tbe bonuses which are now paraded in the Gazette for less substantial industries. The acknowledged difficulties in the way of the squatter as well as the farmer might thus be made the subject of special study, and the results could not fail to be as advantageous.