SKILLED ARTIFICES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 226, 13 December 1927, Page 13

SKILLED ARTIFICES

FROM DRESSES TO STEEL TOOLS KOWHAI SCHOOL EXHIBITS If a parents wants a handsome leather handbag, an embroidered nightdress, a medicine cabinet, or perhaps a set of tools, the surest way to get the best article procurable seems to be to send the children to the Kowhai Junior High School. Converted into a show-store to-day, the school is exhibiting' the handicraft of its pupils. Besides the three R’s, and the elements of secondary school education, Kowhai teaches the technical arts of dres*s-making, metal working, wood-working, leather designing and many combinations of these, so that the unknowing visitor would believe he had stepped into a Queen Street shop. To-day parents and friends were invited to see the results of the year’s training. LIKE DISPLAY COUNTERS Like the display counters of a prosperous store was. the dress-making room. Apparel intimate and otherwise, of all colours and in evry material. Embroidery and fancy work decorated certain articles and there were chic articles and there were chiq hats all “made on the premises.” Little brothers* trousers and round-abouts were conspicuous. About 500 girls attend the dressmaking calsses and only a portion of their work was "hung," many of the garments being already in use. The metal-working department, one thought, would have been barred to the girls, but the first things that impressed one were tin and copper nameplates, and handkerchief boxes in reprouse work, done by girls with two and a half months’ traiinng. First year boys from 10 to 12 years old had an assembly of garden tools, rakes, hoes cultivators, made on imitative methods. Oldeh boys had made cooking utensils, candle-sticks, hinges, panels and trays ' of tin and copper to their own designs. One of the interesting exhibits j was a watering-can made from kerosene tins and a floor polish tin, which secured a prize at the Waikato Show. SETS OF TOOLS Two 14-year-old boys had made sets of tools comprising hack-saws, squares, sets of chisels, punches, ascribers. Everything from inkstands and cakecoolers to firescreens and dumbwaietrs was made by the pupils in the wood-work department. The girls had again entered this room and made some handkerchief boxes with pret-tily-designed and stained lids, besides coat and hat stands. ILLUSTRATED “THE MERCHANT” The walls of the drawing-room are lined with the free-hand efforts of ‘he pupils. Not only do they draw from models but they are encouraged to use their imaginations. One enterpriisng girl, Connie Norris, has actually illustrated “The Merchant of Venice” in water colour. The elements of wood-cutting is taught with linoleum, and there are some excellent proofs of ships, animals and seascapes simple and effective. In this department also the pupils have three hundred leather articles, music cases, hand bags, satchels ai.d purses, many of them with stamped and painted design. Fretwork toys and picked fra ».es painetd in bright colours made a good showing, and there were some fine examples of stained wooden bowls and i trays.