E.—2

Attempts have been made in one or two districts to provide in some measure for the needs of boys in isolated schools by the teaching of light woodwork with a small equipment of tools under the instruction of the regular staff of the school, but the results are necessarily limited, not only by lack of teachers with skill and experience in woodwork, but also by the lack of equipment and accommodation. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of consolidation of schools and of the establishment of intermediate schools and departments may be in other respects, there can be no gainsaying that they are essential conditions to the extension and full use of facilities for manual training, and for all arts and crafts needing specialist teachers and more or less elaborate equipment and accommodation. In Te Awamutu, for example, five schools outside the borough sent classes for manual training in 1935, but if an intermediate school were established some sixteen schools could contribute, and all their children would receive manual training under conditions that could be very much better than if they sent classes once a week to the manual-training centre, even if transport could be satisfactorily arranged for their attendance in Te Awamutu once a week. In the towns also, now served mainly by separate manual-training centres, the establishment of intermediate schools would enable the manual training, art and craft work to be developed and consolidated. In this connection it is to be remembered that visual conceptions incapable of being expressed in words assume greater importance in developing the mental activity of a child in proportion as his powers of verbal expression and logical thought are less capable of development, and that the training of the child in forming and expressing such conceptions must be done through handwork, and, further, that the child like the adult cannot do handwork of any kind without forming visual conceptions and expressing them, however awkwardly, in concrete form. Design, therefore, lies at the root of all handwork and manual training in our schools. The question is not whether design shall be taught or not taught. Every teacher of handwork of whatever kind is necessarily teaching design. In another part of this report are some notes on art and industry, which have a very direct bearing on manual training in our primary and intermediate schools as well as on the more advanced work in secondary and technical schools. There is no doubt that reasonably effective training in design can only be given by those who have themselves a cultivated taste and a sound knowledge of the principles of design. For this reason also, it is necessary that specialist teachers in manual training should include as far as possible those who are able to guide the work of the schools on sound lines. The establishment of intermediate and consolidated schools will tend to ensure full utilization of specialist teachers, without which satisfactory teaching of design as the basis of all handwork will hardly be possible. Examinations. At the August examinations for the teachers' handicraft certificates there were thirteen candidates, of whom two were successful in qualifying for the award of certificates. Of the remaining eleven candidates, three were successful in completing Section I of the examination, one was successful in completing Section 11, while two candidates who had previously passed all but one subject of Section I completed that section and also Section 11. Three other candidates also improved their examination status. Of the thirteen candidates who sat the examination, two failed to improve their position. The following is a summary of the results of the technological examination held in November, 1935: — Plumbing: Preliminary—Five sat, four passed. Intermediate—Five sat, three passed. Final—Nine sat, five passed. Motor Mechanics (Major Course) : Preliminary—Two sat, one passed. Final— Two sat, one passed. Motor Mechanics (Minor Course) : Preliminary—Two sat, two passed. Intermediate—Four sat, three passed. Final —One sat, one passed. Carpentry and Joinery: Preliminary—One sat, none passed. Intermediate —Eight sat, two passed. Final —Seven sat, one passed. Cabinetmaking: Intermediate—Two sat, two passed. Final—Four sat, three passed. Electrical Fitting: Intermediate —Two sat, two passed. Mechanical Engineering: Preliminary—Three sat, three passed. Intermediate — Three sat, three passed. Final —Four sat, three passed. For the whole examination the results were as follows: Preliminary, thirteen sat, ten passed; intermediate, twenty-four sat, fifteen passed; final, twenty-seven sat, fourteen passed; the totals being sixty-four sat for the examinations and thirty-nine passed. In 1934 the total number who sat for the examinations was sixty-four, of whom forty-two passed. The examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute continue to be held m New Zealand by the Education Department, but only in the subject of electrical engineering practice and in special subjects for which no provision is made in connection with the Department's own technological examinations.

16