E.—s

1898. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: MANUAL TRAINING AND TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. [In continuation of E.-1c., Sess. II., 1897.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

I EXTEAGT FEOM TWENTY-FIBST ANNUAL EBPOET OP THE MINISTEE OP EDUCATION. Manual Training and Technical Instruction. The annual, reports of the several Education Boards afford no reason to believe that any great activity is being manifested in the development of that kind of elementary manual training which, under the operation of the Act of 1895, is now recognised as being part of the proper educative work of the primary schools, and which, while including kindergarten occupations and " sloyd," is capable of wide development in cardboard-work, and in the construction of models in wood and metal as illustrations of many subjects of scientific instruction. Development in this direction does not necessarily come under the notice of the department, as it lies within the province of the Education Boards. With respect to another form of manual instruction, a form in which it constitutes, through the handling of tools and materials, a more direct preparation for manual trades, the Act of 1895 contemplates a measure of co-operation between the department and the Boards, since any serious treatment of the subject from this point of view seems to require a workshop and some expenditure on tools, and to have its proper place outside of the time properly devoted to such mental development and equipment as is generally comprehended under the word " schooling." It has been deemed a great gain to have secured in our time this " schooling " for the children of all classes, and it ought not to be proposed now to encroach upon its hours in the interests of that kind of serious preparation for a trade or a business which naturally begins when school-days are over. Eor manual instruction out of school-hours the Boards receive subsidy at the same rate as for any classes they may institute

I—E. 5.