EDUCATIONAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13298, 29 May 1907, Page 5

EDUCATIONAL.

THE CONFERENCE iX LOXDOX. THE TECHNICAL SIDE. Press Association-By Ttlegraph-Copyright Received 10.55 p.m.. Mav 28ch. LOXDOX, May. 28. ill' S. H. Batcher, member of the House of Commons for Cambridge University, ii; presiding at the Education Conference, said that it had long been recognised that the colonies were the great experimental laboratories of the Empire in social and political matters, and were believed to have the same intellectual future as the Gr=ek colonics, which were the workshops of the Hellenic mind, in recreating the material sent from the mother State, and sending it back renewal and revivified. Sir" Horace Plunkett opened a discussion on the methods of agricultural education. ?.lr' John West and Mr Tait (Victorians) delivered speeches which largely ranged around Australian experiences.

Sir' Philip Magnus said that imperialisation of the ■ system of technical education was the prime essential, and that it- was "possible* to do much by an interchange of students and the publication of such reports "sis New South Wales recently issued. Mr West.gave a vigorous account of the influence of technical training on farmers in building'up. the Australian butter industry. English . farmers were suffering from the lack of similar opportunity. The cure of the cotton cushion scale - ' disease (" Prangeries California ") by the introduction to South Australia of" " Vedali cardinalis" showed the possibilities of inter-imperial diffusion of technical knowledge.

Mr Tait gave a detailed account of Victoria's co-ordinated scheme of agricultural education. Australian experience had proved that a sound general education of equal standard to that in the cities must precede technical education. His references to agricultural high schools aroused general interest. A REQUEST DECLINED.

Per Press Association.

WELLINGTON, Slay 28.

• A deputation from the Technical Education Board, the Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Association, and ths Trades and Labour Council,waited on the Minister for Education to-aav to ask that the Government should give" a sits for technical education purposes at either Mount Cook or Mount View—parts of the city where there are wide; arias of ground on which the gaol and the mental hospital, were built by the General Government. It was pointed out to the ilinister that SOG students .attend the city technical school, and that the pr s.nt accommodation is utterly inadequate. . The Minister said that- it was almost -unique to ask the Government for & feite for a technical school. _ The Government had insisted in every case- that localities should provide the site, and he did not think that there was the least likelihood of any exception ■ being made to that rule in the case of Wellington. They must depend upon themselves, to provide the sit-, and only look to the Government for assistance in providing,buildings aind equipment. That applied generally, not particularly to the question of the Mount Cook site; in regard to that site the position was this: The Government felt that on every occasion that land was required for any public purpose in Wellington they had to pay an exorbitant price, and therefore th'y proposed to keep Mount Cook site for further development, and_ extension of. the needed Government buildings.