The Buildings.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 10, 1 August 1907, Page 374

The Buildings.

On the submission of the plans, the Education Department recommended that one of the three workshops proposed, together with the Assembly Hall, Museum and Reading Room, should be omitted. Seeing that the Assembly Hall is necessary foi the proper conduct of the technical day school which it proposes to establish, that a third workshop is urgently needed, and that a Museum and Reading Room would add much to the value and interest of the work done, the Board accepted the recommendation of the Department with great reluctance. The Government then made a grant of £5650 and on the tenders

proving too high increased its contribution to £7306. Whilst recognising the liberality of the Government, the board feels that the work of the Technical College must inevitably suffer if there is no more liberal infusion of educational interests and pursuits than can be effected by class routine alone. A properly conceived Technical College should be to the workers all that a University College is to the professional classes ; and it should have as its ideal the fostering of those wholesome, general interests, which are of such moment in moulding character and in cultivating public spirit. The Government has done its part generously, and it remains for the people of Christchurch to decide whether the work of technical education in their city shall be conducted with broad modern aims, or confined to the narrowest limits.