Puknell. — 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. Oa 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 exercize. Nor can we shut 

 our eyes to the fact that our High Schools and Colleges are an eyesore to no 



