Nelson Philosophical Society. ill 



In a community like that of the Province of Nelson, where a very small 

 number of the useful arts and occupations are established, and human 

 industry runs altogether in few channels, it is of the very last importance 

 that provision should be made for technical instruction, such as that which 

 is given in the Real-schule of many cities on the Continent of Europe, and 

 such as that also which is being given in the various technical colleges of 

 England. Statesmen are continually addressing themselves to the question 

 of the importance of establishing varied industries in our midst. Technical 

 education would be one way to accomplish this, and a far better way than 

 bounties and protective tariffs. If young people had the means of finding 

 out for what they had natural taste and aptitude, they would be more 

 diverse in their choice of occupation. At present the office or the plough is 

 the alternative, the former meaning genteel poverty, and the latter a rougher 

 struggle for existence. The Darwinian law may be inevitable, but human 

 wisdom can surely mitigate the rigour with which it falls on poor humanity. 

 To ameliorate the condition of people in a new land, the best way would 

 perhaps be to introduce variety into the life of its inhabitants, which unfor- 

 tunately tends to be altogether too groovish if left to itself and the operation 

 of natural laws. How better do this than by acclimatizing new industries 

 and occupations? And again, how better accomplish this than by teaching 

 the useful arts, and allowing the love for them and the scientific investiga- 

 tion which they involve to grow up in the human mind while it is plastic ? 



Another reason why technical education should be encouraged may be 

 found in the fact that nowadays the apprenticeship system is altogether 

 dying out, and therefore the old system of extended schooling is gone ; and 

 unless technical classes be formed, particularly as legitimate amusement in 

 a new country is limited both in amount and variety, the young people of a 

 colony are likely to find themselves in the position of those who, as the 

 Spaniards say, rather tempt the devil than are tempted by him; and further- 

 more, if, as a community, even in the face of bad times and a falling revenue, 

 we are indisposed to cut down our present large expenditure on public educa- 

 tion, for very consistency's sake we should try and make that education as 

 thorough and as modern as possible. At present, however, we are doing 

 nothing of the kind. Even in old countries, where technical education, from 

 one point of view at all events, is less needed than here on account of the 

 diversified occupations of the people at large, the attention that has been 

 devoted to, and the money that has been spent upon, the establishment of 

 technical colleges and classes, are so great that as a community we ought 

 indeed to take shame to ourselves for what must be characterised as culp- 

 able neglect. It is in this matter as in many others. If, as a people, we 

 spend money on an object, we think we discharge our duties in reference to 

 it. We do not trouble ourselves as to hoiv the money is disbursed. We are 

 more just and liberal with dollars than with thought, though we must know 

 that there is much debt that dollars cannot discharge, but only employment 

 of loving labour and patient thinking. 



The fact is, what is now taught in the public schools of the Colony is 

 not real education at all, but only elementary instruction ; it is the means of 

 acquiring education, but not the thing itself. It produces no real love for 

 learning, no true curiosity to probe into the secrets of Nature, no anxiety to 

 acquire manual skill, no pride in excellence of workmanship, no devotion to 

 truth and nobility. Neither reverence for what is truly great, nor ability 

 to be practically useful, nor recognition of native talent, the responsibility 

 which it entails and the pleasure which result from its further development, 

 can be expected to result from a meagre system of cram, such as we have at 

 present in our scheme of public instruction. And although it would be too 

 much to expect that all these beneficial results would necessarily spring 

 from courses of technical training, it may fairly be said that some of them 

 would. 



The encouragement, therefore, of every effort in the direction of technica 

 education for the community in which it exists, must be regarded as one of 



