E.—ls.

18

I years when he is beginning to look at the world with the maturer eyes of manhood and when his interests are no longer those of the child, but more nearly identical with those of the majority of the earnest toilers around him. In fact, we must extend our " school age " for all individuals —not merely for the professional students- —from fourteen or fifteen to eighteen at least. This does not imply that none are to go to work until that age ; but, even if the necessity of earning a living makes such a course inevitable (as it undoubtedly does in the majority of cases), still we must so modify our ideas and our practice as to give the apprentices in the workshops, the junior clerks in our shops and offices, the boys on the farms, and the girls in their homes, that instruction which will make them more efficient in their several callings, give them a wider outlook on the world, and therefore make them better citizens. The instruction should go on side by side with their daily work —if possible in the daytime when their energies are fresh, but, if not, in the evening. Employers in other parts of the world have found it to their benefit to*have their apprentices educated, and have willingly given up six or seven hours a week for this purpose, and the workers' unions in Switzerland, Wuerttemberg, and elsewhere have cordially co-operated with the employers in voting, in most of the communes, for the legal enforcement of such attendance. In any case, whether the instruction is given in the day time or in the evening, whether attendance is enforced by legal enactment or by mutual agreement, it is absolutely certain that unless we in New Zealand take steps to imitate the example set by older countries, not only shall we fall behind Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the United States, but we shall by no means keep pace with the more advanced communities in England and Scotland, where the principle I am pleading for is beginning to be recognised. We might begin with a moderate standard for the young worker between fourteen and eighteen years of age, say, 200 hours of instruction per annum ; half the time might be given by the employer (wages being paid for full time), and half by the worker out of his own time. In organized trades, a rule might be made that, in future, admission to a union of skilled workmen should be conditional upon the possession of a certificate that the candidate for admission had followed diligently the full course of instruction as an apprentice to the trade (i.e., a certificate corresponding to the " Oertificat de Capacite "in a Geneva trade school). It might even be possible to classify workmen on such a basis ; and as membership of a union would be the evidence of a trained artisan, the question of preference to unionists would solve itself, for no sane employer would dream of employing a man who was not a member of a union. Wherever vocational training (as it has been called) has been systematically established, the efficiency of workmen (and among them we mustinclude the managers and foremen of the various industries) has been vastly increased ; competent judges, indeed —not educationists, but employers — have declared that in some cases—notably in certain mechanical trades in Germany, and in farming in America —the value of the output has been doubled in consequence of the awakened intelligence of the workers. Such men would have a just claim to higher wages ; but, what is more, the increase of production would probably afford ample means of paying such higher wages, for the needs of the civilised world are by no means satisfied yet. The importance of the subject justifies somewhat fuller reference to the present law in Wuerttemberg. Vocational Schools in Wuerttemberg. In Wuerttemberg and Bavaria there has been a great development during the last twenty or thirty years in the matter of vocational schools. Wuerttemberg now leads all German States in the extent of the development of its " Industrial Improvement Schools " (Gewerbliche Fortbildungsschulen) or Industrial Continuation Schools. (The word " industrial" has here nearly the meaning of the word " technical," as commonly used by us). In 1905 it had 243 Industrial and Commercial Improvement Schools, Public Drawing Schools, and " Women's Work" Schools, scattered throughout the kingdom, with a total of 28,574 students (the population of Wuerttemberg is 2,300,000) ; 150 of the institutions were Industrial Improvement Schools for young men —22 compulsory by local option, and 128 non-com-pulsory —attended by 18,535 students (1,349 + 17,186) ; 4 were Commercial Improvement Schools —2 compulsory and 2 non-compulsory —with a total enrolment of 1,245 (225 + 1,020) ; 42 were Industrial Drawing Schools, with 894 pupils; 15 were Industrial Improvement Schools for girls, with 1,042 in attendance ; and 32 were Trade Schools for girls and women, with 6,858 on the lists. Industrial drawing was taught in these schools by 654 specialists, and the remaining subjects by 952 instructors.