Hill. — Technical and Scientific Training. 165 



of which we need so much to encourage the study among 

 children. Mere book knowledge makes a good show to the 

 outside world, which only reads of examination results; but 

 teachers who know nature even as far as their surroundings, 

 and who can interest children not alone in the dead past 

 but in the more important living present, are badly wanted by 

 this country, and they must be obtained if our education is to 

 be anything better than the mere varnish of knowledge. The 

 industries, the scientific progress, the material, and even the 

 social and political status of the country are in the hands of 

 the six thousand or so teachers who are occupied in the noble 

 work of education. Provision must be made for the training 

 of teachers in technical skill apart from mere academic 

 instruction ; and this must not be on the antiquated lines 

 of "normal schools," such as were established in England 

 and elsewhere when provision was first made to prepare 

 teachers suitable for the elementary instruction then deemed 

 sufficient. 



Our schools are " national " in the fullest meaning of the 

 word. Thev are established and maintained bv the countrv, 

 and it is assumed that all the children of the State pass 

 through them. It is essential, therefore, that the best skill 

 obtainable should be found in the public schools, so that the 

 best influences can be brought to bear upon the right upbring- 

 ing of the coming democracy. The duty of the country is 

 clear upon this point, and the sooner properly equipped 

 technical schools for the training of teachers are established 

 the sooner are we likely to have men and women working in 

 the schools who are able to utilise all the surroundings of the 

 children in the acquisition of knowledge and the utilisation of 

 books. At present our scheme of public instruction lacks co- 

 ordination and simplification. It has even now become intri- 

 cate, and the passing of the Manual and Technical Act of 

 1900, with its recent amendments, has intensified the diffi- 

 culties. 



But how complex already are our ways of providing 

 elementary education for less than a hundred and fifty 

 thousand children and adults in this colony. There is a 

 central Department of Education in Wellington, with many 

 clerks ; there are fourteen Education Boards, with secretaries, 

 clerks, architects, and inspectors of schools ; there are school 

 committees, truant officers, &c, and all this is for the regu- 

 lation and training of about a hundred and twenty thousand 

 children ! Then, for the secondary schools there are Boards of 

 Governors, with large endowments of lands subject to their con- 

 trol ; there are School Commissioners, who manage primary- 

 education reserves and secondary reserves that have not yet 

 been made over to Boards of Governors having charge of high 



