600 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



" I fear that in this Colony the type of education provided under the 

 auspices of the government is not that which is best suited to the needs of 

 the masses, and if any real progress is to be effected, a radical alteration must 

 be made in the present system. It may be said that none of the boys reached 

 by the Education Act proceed with their studies after leaving school. As a 

 rule the main object of the parents is to get them away from school, so that 

 their services may be utilized on board a sponger or in some form of manual 

 labor. In the very unlikely event of a boy showing an aptitude for book 

 learning, and making the best use of his training, his great ambition is to 

 become a clerk in a store, or possibly to enter the government service. But 

 the demand for this form of labor is extremely limited, and very poorly 

 remunerated, whereas there is need for a good class of artisans. At present 

 there is not one master carpenter, blacksmith or mason in the Colony, and no 

 means of training these and possible exponents of other industrial arts. There 

 are men who build houses and small craft, and fashion wood and iron into 

 various shapes ; but it is the ' rule of thumb ' which reigns, and there is little 

 of the precision which comes of the trained hand and eye in conjunction with 

 a trained mind. What is wanted here is a system based on that so ably con- 

 ducted by Mr. Booker Washington at Tuskegee, Alabama, United States of 

 America, and until that or some similar scheme based upon industrial training 

 as the main factor in the educational method is adopted, I fear that no im- 

 provement in the condition of the large native population in this Colony will 

 be manifested. It is easy, however, to make destructive criticism, but although 

 an alternative system may be advocated, it is almost impossible in a Colony 

 like this, where the revenue is never sufficient for the calls upon it, to make 

 the radical change which would be necessary in order to place this question 

 upon a proper foundation, and unfortunately so far little disposition has 

 been shown by the legislature to assist the government in its efforts to en- 

 courage practical agriculture, which, after all, is the industry upon which 

 the mass of the people must rely, and about which at present they know next 

 to nothing." ! 



5 Loc. cit., p. 45. 



