HIGHER COMMERCIAL TRAINING.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1920, Page 4

HIGHER COMMERCIAL TRAINING.

In the old day 3 when British merchants lived on the premises where their business was carried on and an apprenticeship of seven years was the rule, commerce and trade ran in a smooth groove, and en a system that was followed closely by one generation after another, Specialising was practically unknown, or, in rare cases, where introduced, was barely tolerated. To-day, specialisation is becoming the dominant factor in success, it being the outcome of competition and hustle, just as labor-saving devices have superseded the slow method of handwork. A century back to have proposed the institution of a University Degree i)> Commerce would have been regarded as a symptom of unhinged mentality. To-day it is claimed as a need of the time, and is being made an actuality. In every vocation of life the conditions have been so greatly altered that a precise knowledge—generally referred to as science—has become imperative if we are to keep in the forefront, or at least abreast of, our competitors. Hence the introduction of technical classes, model farms, correspondence schools, and all the other aids to equip the rising generation adequately for the battle of life. The study of economics, agriculture, mathematics, engineering, electricity, and every other subject that has a place in modern activities has become as essential as the study for the medical and other professions. The British have been sneered at as a nation of shopkeepers, because of their natural gift of success in trade and commerce. They could well afford to smile at the sneer while accumulating their profits. Hereafter, when degrees in commerce have become the rule and not the exception, there will be dignity aft well as profit attached to the vocation. It is only eighteen months since the ohairman of the Council of the London University Senate, and the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, late director of the London School of Economics and formerly Agent-General for New Zealand, initiated a movement for the founding of Degrees of Commerce. The proposals, when submitted to business men, were altered not inconsiderably so as to make them essentially practical, with the result that students have flocked to the classes in such everincreaaing numbers that a new building, estimated to cost £140,000, has been planned. According to the Director of the School of Economics, the Commerce Degrees represent the newest side of the work at the school. There is a growing recognition among business men of the desirability of higher training in commercial subjects, and some of the younger Universities provide this training. The Government Audit Department is paying the fees of its young men; one firm is doing the same for eighty-six of its employees, and there are from 500 to COO students sent by railway companies. In Order to obtain the University Degree in Commerce a young man must take the full university course, but without aspiring to that he can attend the special classes for commerce, and gain all the advantages thereby. What is offered to those working for commercial degrees is a wider view of commerce than can be acquired by following in the routine of any particular business office, and the advantages are mutually shared by employers and employed. Every important interest has made an acknowledgment of the -Tying need for higher commercial training, if the British arc to hold their own in world competition.