X.— 5

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and instructive to watch the progress made by these bodies in developing what is really a system of local compulsion by means of by-laws. The problems involved are admittedly difficult, and need to be handled with very great care. Progress towards the complete solution of all of them must necessarily be more or less gradual, according as the attitude of the public generally, especially that of certain sections of it, becomes more enlightened or remains antagonistic or indifferent. In any case it may safely be said that the problems are not to be solved in their entirety by Acts of Parliament nor by any form of external compulsion. What is needed above all and first of all is the hearty and thorough co-operation of all employers of labour. Given that, we are satisfied that local education authorities will have little difficulty in providing what is required. Employers of skilled labour in New Zealand are in the main, we believe, alive to the value of technical education. The opinion is also general among them that the most suitable time for young workers to receive this education is after working-hours. On the other hand, it is the deliberate opinion of those directly concerned with the conduct of evening technical classes not only in New Zealand, but elsewhere, that it is well-nigh impossible for young students attending classes after working-hours to take full advantage of the instruction given, and that if these students are to make substantial progress some concessions in the way of time off must be allowed. How these conflicting issues are to be reconciled is one of the problems that await solution. The conviction is expressed thai, as technical schools exist principally for the betterment of industrial and social conditions, it rests with employers to decide whether these aims shall or shall not be realized. Is it too much to hope that one day employers generally will come to see that the greater efficiency of the workers as the result of education must have the effect of enlarging, partly by improved methods of production and partly by the avoidance of waste, the produce out of which both wages and profits are drawn? The following general remarks have reference to the work of the art and technical schools as a whole during 1909 : — Art. —Instruction in various branches of pure and applied art is given in three fairly wellequipped schools of art and tit several technical schools, as part of a general scheme of technical instruction. There is in the main a marked improvement in the work of most of the classes, due largely to improved methods of instruction, and in some measure to the marked change in the attitude of leading art-teachers generally in relation to art-teaching. Thus the use of flat copies and conventional models, and to some extent casts, is giving place to living things as subjects for drawing and painting. Students are brought face to face with tangible realities, and are taught to give expression to their own conceptions of these realities in various media. The stump has given place to charcoal, while colour-studies, the most complete method of rendering the whole appearance of an object, play a very important part in elementary art instruction. Design is steadily emerging from the indefinite and meaningless stage, and its value as an aid to the development of originality and invention is being more and more recognized. Greater insistence is being laid on the importance of students applying in various ways the knowledge they have gained, and this application is considered to be of greater importance than the acquisition of great facility in merely imitative work. It is gratifying to note that instructors generally are responding to the new movement, and, although it is too early to estimate the full value and effect of the new methods, there can be no question as to the general improvement in the work. In some blanches of applied art —notably modelling, enamelling, and jewellery work —excellent work has been done, but it appears necessary again to call attention to what cannot be regarded as other than a great weakness, namely, the inability of many students taking woodcarving and art met til-work to either draw or model, and their ignorance of the elementary principles of design. These pupils are necessarily compelled to work from designs that are not their own. Again, the instructors too often do too much of the pupils' work. The defects noted are so pronounced in some few eases as to suggest the expediency, if steps are not taken to remove them, of revoking the recognition of the classes concerned. Architecture and Building-construction. —Considerable progress has been made by most of the classes for these subjects. In view of the importance of the building trade, it is a matter for regret that the attendance generally at the classes is small. The reason for this is not that competent instructors and adequate equipment are not available—the classes are well provided in these respects —but must be sought for in other directions. It is suggested that the number in attendance might be increased if, instead of requiring students to attend for two hours and a half on three evenings a week under different instructors for the various subjects included in the course, a minimum attendance of five hours a week for an elementary course and of six hours for an advanced course was arranged for, each course being taken by one instructor. Students would under this arrangement take fewer subjects in any given year, but their attendance might well be secured during the greater part of their apprenticeship. The following is suggested as a suitable elementary course: (1) Descriptive geometry and setting-out. sketching building details. 1 hour; (2) elementary mathematics, including mensuration, and elementary mechanics, 2 hours; (3) drawing with instruments from pupils' own sketches, 2 hours. Quantity surveying might with advantage be taken alternately with mathematics and mensuration, while occasional lessons in plain lettering might also be given in connection with the instruction in drawing. Carpentry and Joinery, Cabinetmaking, <(■<■.—There has been a decrease in the attendance at classes for both elementary and advanced instruction in these subjects, due largely to the very general depression in the building trade. Some really excellent work has, however, been accomplished, especially in the larger technical schools. We have in mind certain specimens of advanced joinery and cabinetmaking which must he regarded as silent witnesses of the value of the trainin" given. The specimens in question were designed, the working-drawings prepared, and the whole of the bench-work carried out by the students themselves. In the smaller centres signs of improvement are not easy to detect. The classes consist mainly of amateurs, and much of the work is, we