PunxELL.—On Technical Education. 405 
engineering—including telegraphy, electric lighting and transmission of 
power, electrical machine making, metal platework, plumbers’ work, silver- 
smiths’ work, watch and clock making, wood working, metal working, 
mechanical engineering, carriage building, carpentry and joinery, mechanical 
preparation of ores, marine surveying. The various schools and classes 
devote themselves to such branches as are likely to be most useful to the 
artizans of the localities in which they are respectively situated. 
In order to make technical schools available to those for whom they are 
designed, the school fees must be fixed at a low figure, especially for appren- 
tices. On the other hand, the cost of foundation and maintenance is con- 
siderable. They are not self-supporting institutions. Hence, if such 
schools were established in New Zealand, it could only be by outside assist- 
ance. In England the principal part of the cost is defrayed by the city 
guilds and the trade companies in different localities, although the Depart- 
ment of Science and Art is lending important aid in the shape of the 
Central Institute at Kensington. On the Continent such schools appear to 
be supported partly by the Government, partly by the local bodies, and 
partly by aid given by private individuals. In New Zealand, however, 
nearly the whole cost would have to be paid out of the public purse in some 
way or other. That, however, is not a reason why we should refrain from 
‘taking steps for the establishment of technical schools. The expenditure 
of money upon this object could be justified by the same reasoning which 
justifies us in giving bonuses for the encouragement of new industries, only 
it would yield a hundredfold greater results. I admit that the present cost 
of education is excessive compared with the colony’s means; but I do not 
think that the outlay involved in the opening of technical schools at the 
principal centres of population, say at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch 
and Dunedin, (which would serve as examining centres for numerous 
classes in other places), would add perceptibly to the colony’s burthens. 
Viewing the matter in the aspect which I do, viz., as a remodelling of 
our system of secondary education, it would be a legitimate application 
if a part, and a substantial part, of the splendid endowments which have 
been set aside in New Zealand for secondary education were devoted to 
the establishment and maintenance of technical schools. These endowments 
have hitherto been exclusively applied to the support of scholastic institu- 
tions of great merit, but which are to a large extent a luxury beyond the 
means of the colony ; while these institutions are in many cases bestowing 
a refined education upon persons to whom it will prove a curse rather than 
a blessing, and whose valuable energies will be virtually lost to the country 
for want of a sufficiently ample field for their exereize. Nor can we shut 
our eyes to the fact that our High Schools and Colleges are an eyesore to no 
