TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Southland Times, Issue 19122, 14 December 1923, Page 6

TECHNICAL COLLEGE

BREAKING-UP CEREMONY. PRESENTATION OF PRIZES. The termination of the year’s work at the Southland Technical College was marked by a concert yesterday afternoon, at which the prizes won during the past year i were presented by the chairman of the Board (Mr J. H. Reed) to the successful I scholars. A musical programme was render- | c<l by the scholars and was much appreciated by the large number of adults present, as well as by the children, after which the annual reports of the chairman and Director wore read and the ceremony concluded with the presentation of the prizes. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT. “The year 1923 marks, in my opinion,” said Mr Reed, “an important point in our history—our recognition by the town and the Education Department as a school with an assured future. After many disappointments and delays, I am happy to be able to say that arrangements are practically complete to secure a ground area of over three acres in and near Forth street as a site for a modern Technical College. Of necessity, the transfer of properties will lake some time, but three-quarters of an acre will be added as a girls’ playground at the commencement of the 1924 season. I wish I were able to promise, as well, that enough rooms for our growing needs will be provided. Unfortunately, we can only secure one extra general class-room, one needlework room and a senior cookery room; proper art accommodation, a mechanics’ laboratory, a wool-classing room and two extra workshops, though urgently needed, cannot be made ready until the Boys' High School falls into our hands. This will probably take another year at least. “I am sorry to notice that not many of those interested in (he school actively re-, sent slow provision of extra accommodation. Dunedin, with a Technical High School, but a little larger than ours, has twice the number of classrooms and is still Jjuilding. Why should Invercargill lag so far behind? “In all coursese we anticipate an increased demand for instruction next year. Indications are that we will have a strong sccond-year Agricultural class, and for them we must make special arrangements. We hope to enlarge our facilities for art instruction and this involves the appointment of two teachers. Demands on our Domestic Science staff are now too great, and a part-time needlework teacher must be added as well. In the Engineering Course a junior workshop instructor is now urgently required. The Education Department is so much in sympathy with our needs that it has agreed to sanction all these appointments, provided the school roll number rises past 400 on March 31 next. As 408 pupils came to the Technical High School this year, 373 of whom were with us on March 31, we have every reason to expect that we shall be able to fulfil the conditions and that our work will, consequently, show a great expansion. “I would like to refer to one other matter; one still hears the opinion expressed that the Technical School follows the same course of work as secondary schools, and therefore, scarcely justifies its separate existence. I appeal to those who have come to see any one of our recent annual Exhibitions of work to say whether this is the case. It is true that Technical High Schools try to give a sound training in general subjects, but even this is directed on to quite different lines from those common in secondary schools. The practical work shown at the Exhibition represents quite a small portion of the week’s work for the year and is some indication of the same standard that we seek to reach in every subject of the curriculum.” DIRECTOR’S REPORT. The Director, Mr W. G. Aldridge, submitted the following report:—“4oB pupils enrolled this year as against 416 in 1922, and as the proportion of entrants in each course was almost the same for the two years, no great change in staffing or in time-table was necessary. At the end of the year, about the same proportion as usual of the school, namely one-quarter, had left to take up employment, but these were in almost every case second or third-year students. I must again draw attention to the difficulty I find in supplying boys and girls for commercial position. Our students find it so easy to secure employment that 4 have frequently found myself unable to send a senior student in response to an employer’s inquiry. “ The only change in the staff this year has been, one which resulted in the appointment of Miss B. Plimsoll, M.A., who came to.us from Napier Technical High School. Miss Plimsoll not only possesses the highest qualifications, but has already shown herself most willing to share in the general life of the school. I consider her appointment most fortunate. Miss A. V. Constable, who has been with us for three years, leaves to-day to be married. She carries with her the best wishes of everyone connected with the school, the more so as she has done excellent work. We part also with Mr J. W. Dickson, who has been teaching Art Classes here for the past 14 years, although for the first twelve he was really in the employ of the High Schools’ Board. The successes attained in New Zealand and other countries by his past students form a lasting testimony of his work amongst us, in spite of the extremely depressing and inadequate surroundings among which his work has perforce been done. "I had an excellent opportunity to compare the work of the school with that done in other centres during a period of some five weeks’ absence which was very kindly granted to me by the Board for that purpose. I found the same difficulties which cramp our work, chiefly staffing troubles and the short length of stay of the average pupil. I came back satisfied that our staff can hold its own with that of any other Technical School in the Dominion, and that our work, though not by any means up to the standard we seek to attain, is at least moving along the right lines. I have been stricter than usual in demanding reasonable progress from the small proportion of students who do not realise that their school days arc a preparation for a useful and strenuous manhood.

“The other side of school life has been very pleasing; in hockey and football we secured handsome wins in local competitions and in the inter-Collegiate Tournament in which we were opposed by the students of Christchurch and Dunedin Colleges. We have had two very enjoyable end-of-terni entertainments and one full-dress play in which we were helped by some e’k-students and Mr C. H. Hobbs. The success of these ventures leads me to hope that they will become recognised activities of the school “As the chairman’s report shows, the school is at last able to look forward with reasonable certainty to a time when our present buildings will be superseded by ?. modern school facing Forth Street, and I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my grateful thanks to the Board for carrying through the transfers relating to the Boys’ High School site and the purchase of Forth street sections so expeditiously. I feci sure that the public of Invercargill will have reason to be thankful a generation hence, that such a far-sighted Board was in office to seize the opportunities that presented themselves this year.” SCHOLARSHIPS AND SPECIAL PRIZES. Following is a list of the scholarships and special prizes awarded: — Scandrett Scholarship:—Gretta Donaldspecial award (free books ana exemption from fees): Ethel Payne; second-year scholarship: Lesile Strathern; first-year Domestic Science scholarship: Edna Hughes; special award (free books and exemption from fees): Sarah Rodger; sec-ond-year scholarship: Andrew Robinson; special award (free books and exemption from fees) : Thomas Morrison; chairman’s prize: Irene Calder; Director’s prize (awarded for outstanding perseverance and merit): Thomas Morrison; library prize (best range of reading) : Alexander Sharp and Mary Fern. MATRICULATION COURSE.

Girls: —Helen Clinch (Ist in History, Drawing, Home Science, General Science),

1; Ella Burrell (Ist in Junior French and | English), 2. Boys: David Kennedy (Ist in i Woodwork, Drawing, Electricity and Me- I chanics, 2nd in English and Progress in French) 1; Matthew Quilter (Ist in Arithmetic, Senior French, English and 2nd in General Science), 2. Progress in French: Esca Clayton. PUBLIC SERVICE COURSE. Arthur Neill (Ist in Mathematics, Arithmetic and Coirespondence, 2nd in Drawing, Book-keeping and Typewriting, 3rd in Geography), 1; Lilian Botherway (Ist in History, Geography, Shorthand, Typing and Hygiene, 2nd in English and Needlework), 2; Dorothy Lacey (Ist in Typewriting and Needlework, 2nd in Arithmetic and Hygiene, 3rd in English and History), 3. Diligence and Progress: John Berry and Arnold Cockburn. Special prize for Typing and Drawing: Ivy Swale. COMMERCIAL COURSE. First-year Girls:—Leslie Strathern (Ist in Book-keeping, Correspondence and Hygiene, 2nd in Arithmetic, Geography, English and History), 1; Olive Dunne (Ist in Geography, Shorthand, Typewriting, Drawing and Needlework, 2nd in Correspondence, 3rd in History and Hygiene), 2; Vera Smellie (Ist in. History, 2nd in Book-keeping and .Hygiene, 2nd (equal) in Typewriting), 3; Daisy James (Ist in English and Arithmetic), 4; Gertrude Baxter (2nd in Drawing, 3rd in English, Book-keeping, Shorthand and Needlework, 4th in Geography), 5. Progress prizes: Gladys Bain ajid Irene Calder. First-year Boys:—Robert Henry (Ist in English, History, Correspondence and Hygiene, 2nd in Geography and Mathematics, 3rd in Typewriting), 1; John Cooke (Isf in Arithmetic, Book-keeping and Mathematics, 2nd in Typewriting, 3rd in Hygiene and History), 2; James Collie (2nd in Drawing, Woodwork, History and English, 3rd in Arithmetic and Correspondence), 3. Progress prize: Sefton Hunter. Second-year Girls:—Ella Botherway. (Ist in Book-keeping and Needlework, 2nd in History,, 2nd (equal) in Geography), 3rd in Shorthand and Hygiene), 1; Betsy Service (Ist in English, Typewriting and Geography, 2nd in Book-keeping, Needlework and Hygiene, 3rd in History), 2; Victoria Hodgkinson (Ist in History, Shorthand and Hygiene, Ist (equal) in Correspondence, 2nd in Geography), 3. Progress prize: Ella Hall. DOMESTIC COURSE. First-year (D.1.A.) :—Edna Hughes (Ist English, History, Arithmetic, Accounts, Hygiene, Cookery, Needlework and Dressmaking, 2nd Drawing, 3rd Needlework), 1; Martha Blue (Ist Drawing, 2nd in Hygiene, Cookery, Dressmaking and Millinery), 2; Selina Matthews (Ist in Needlework, 2nd in Arithmetic, 3rd in Hygiene, History, Cookery and Dressmaking), 3. Improvement prizes: Nina Gimblett and Katherine Jopp. Special prize for Drawing (presented by Mr J. W. Dickson) : Doris Dixon. (D.1.A,): —Sarah Rodger (Ist in English, Arithmetic, Hygiene, Cookery, Needlework, Millinery and Dressmaking, 2nd in History), 1; Catherine Slee (2nd in English), Dressmaking, Needlework, 3rd in Millinery), 2; Marjory Crozier (2nd in Arithmetic and Hygiene, 3rd in English), 3. Special prize (Cookery and Needlework) : Marjorie Sawers. Special prize: Myrtle Green. Second-year (D. II A.). —Annie Smith (2nd in English, History, Arithmetic, Hygiene, Cookery, Millinery, 3rd in Home Science), 1; Gretta Donald (Ist in Arithmetic, Home Science, Hygiene, Cookery), 2. Special prize (for Needlework subjects) : Elsie Tinnock. (D. II B.): — Gertrude Gill (Ist in English, Needlework, Millinery, 2nd in Arithmetic, Drawing, 3rd in Dressmaking and Hygiene), 1; Florence Forbes (Ist in Hygiene, Cookery, 2nd in English, 3rd in Home Science and Millinery), 2; Effie Campbell (Ist in Home Science, Dressmaking, 2nd in Cookery, Needlework and Millinery), 3. Improvement prize: Millicent Moffat. Third-year (D. lll.):—Gladys Anderson (Ist in Cookery, Dressmaking, Home Science anxj Needlework), 1. Improvement prize: Mavis Taylor. TRADES COURSE. (T. I. A.) :—Thomas Morrison (Ist in Mechanics, 2nd in Metalwork and Engineering Theory), 1; Bruce Hannah (Ist in Metalwork), 2; Leonard Brosnan, 3. Progress prize: Stanley Simpson. T. 1.8.) —Daniel Craig (Ist in Mathematics, Mechanics, 2nd in Workshop Theory and Mechanical Drawing), 1; Lawrence Craig (Ist in English, Mechanical Drawing, 2nd in Mechanics and Practical Geometry), 2; Herbert Eason (Ist in Engineering Theory, Woodwork, Metalwork, 3rd in Practical Geometry), 3. Progress prize: William Hogan. (T. I. C.) :—Andrew Robinson, 1; George McEwan, 2; Robert Tuckey, 3. (T. II.) James Thompson (Ist in Electricity ,Drawing, Geometry, Engineering Theory, Heat Engines, Pattern-making and Metalwork, Ist (equal) in Mathematics), 1; Clive Lind (Ist in Mechanics, 2nd in English, Drawing, Geometry, Engineering Theory, Heat Engines, Pattern-making, 2nd (equal) in Electricity), 2; Samuel Wilson (Ist (equal) in Mathematics, 2nd in Mechanics, 2nd (equal) in Electricity), 3; Ivan O’Brien, 4. Improvement: David Hardy. AGRICULTURAL COURSE. A. I.:—Hugh Murray (General Proficiency), 1; John Aburn (General Proficiency), 2. Improvement prize: Harrison Drummond. A. ll.:—Kenneth Crump (General Proficiency).