MANUAL DEXTERITY

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1926, Page 9

MANUAL DEXTERITY

INSTRUCTING THE YOUNG .WORK AT TECHNICAL SCHOOL. PARENTS’ DAY AT NEW PLYMOUTH Unfortunately Nature Joes not often provide human beings with the ability to execute with their hands what their minds conceive or their hearts desire. It is left to them by observation and imitation to discover for themselves how to translate ideas into craftsmanship and by constant study to become expert in fashioning with their hands the many articles that together compose life’s modern equipment. • Realising this, educationalists are attempting to provide more and more fully as the years go by the means for instructing the young m the manual crafts which in later years will earn them their livelihood. And how complete and comprehensive are the facilities afforded the children of to-day is hardly realised by those of the old school until their eyes are opened by the spectacle of boys and girls actually at work such as was afforded in New Plymouth yesterday on the occasion of Parents’ Day at the Technical College. To those not conversant with the work done in a school like the New Plymouth Technical College, the results achieved by the pupils under the guidance of their instructors is almost amazing. In the engineering school, the art class, the woodwork room, the cookery kitchen and the needlework room little people could be seen yesterday setting busily about their appointed tasks as if their lives depended on their industry, and constructing or manufacturing articles that would with credit grace any shop window in Devon Street, A tour through the school results in one leaving with th® impression of having seen a great commercial and industrial community in embryo. THE ENGINEERING SHOP. Surprising ability and care is evident in the metalwork and engineering exhibits. A pipe vice, spanners, hinges, gate latches, etc., have all been made by pupils of the agricultural and industrial classes. The chief exhibit of the engineering classes is a splendid little 3 3-Bin. centre lathe, with drawing and patterns complete, made by the third and fourth year students. Other interesting exhibits are screw-cutting appliances and other mechanical instruments. Several vices and scribing blocks were made by the second and third year pupils, while the work of the first, year pupils is seen in try-squares, calipers, centre punches, chisels, squares, etc. Careful manual work is seen in the drawings, tracings and blue prints of the second, third and fourth year pupils, and freehand machine drawings from models by the first year students. And the boys are seen at work on the actual construction of all these articles. The woodwork class was busily engaged making all sorts of knick-knacks or even pretentious furniture for the home. Included in the exhibits are tables finely executed in rimu and finished in oil or varnish, a bedstead in oiled rimu, and a coal scuttle. Work done by the primary school classes includes 'neatly made ink wells, shelves, letter racks and an inlaid tray. CLEVER WORK BY GIRLS. No less degree of accomplishment is seen in the work of the Technical School girls. Under the capable instruction of their mistress, the girls have executed some splendid poker work with both wood and leather. White pine has been turned into powder boxes, teapot stands, pin trays, vases, serviette rings, and so on, all finished in artistic design and subsequently stained, painted and varnished. The leather work includes purses of various shapes and design. The nimble finger plying needle and cotton under the care of the instructress has produced a wide variety of articles of feminine attire, including a knitted coat and skirt, frocks, d’oyleys, cushion covers, tea-cloths and slippers, and much of the work is of a very high order. . , In the cookery kitchen housewives of the future, clad in appropriate attire, stir mysterious pots over the stoves, and as testimony to their capabilities have displayed on a table a number of tempting examples of the culinary art, including an impressive array of bottled fruit and pickles. Mount Egmont from all angles and in various moods predominates in the ai t school, where some very pleasing sketches arc exhibited. Manufacture of hydrogen, distillation of water, testing of milk, and several other experiments were being carried out in the science laboratory, and in the commercial room an imposing array of typewriters clicked busily under the dexterous fingers ot both boys and girls. _ The school will be open for inspection again this afternoon and this evening.