THE WOMBAT. 



TECHNICAL SOCIETIES AND THEIR 

 AFFILIATION. 



By C. O. Dentry. 



In casting one's eyes around, an observant person cannot fail 

 to notice the efforts that are made for the improvement of 

 both the social and moral well-being of the people. Perhaps 

 the most remarkable of these efforts is noticeable when we 

 look at the institutions devoted to the education of the 

 masses. From the time of the founding of our leading 

 universities, through successive generations to the present 

 time, these institutions were almost, without exception, 

 reserved for the classes. The policy of the present age is to 

 place within the reach of the people such advantages that, 

 judiciously and thoughtfully used, will tend to their general 

 improvement, and as a consequence, the raising of the nation 

 to a still higher level as a civilized race. 



The combination of manual training with mental effort 

 is now so . well recognized, that their union was a natural 

 consequence, and institutions under the general name of 

 Technical or Working Men's Colleges, are now to be found 

 in all the leading towns of at least our own colony. Their 

 value it is almost impossible to guage. It is not shown only 

 by the number who pass the prescribed examinations, for the 

 most dismal failure will carry with him into his future life 

 some gleanings from the field of knowledge, that will show 

 the road to some further improvement, or some manual 

 dexterity that will stand him in good stead in a time of 

 necessity. 



In a disposition naturally mechanical, the training of 

 mind, hand, and eye is of far-reaching importance. 

 There is a mental as well as a physical momentum, and the 

 habit of thought once started has a wonderful power of 

 carrying itself onward and growing upon itself. A thought 

 cannot halt where it starts, nor is an idea dead because it 

 never reached fruition. But in addition to the classes proper 

 that are themselves part of these Colleges, there are other 

 societies that naturally gravitate towards them, and are 



*aO t X4TTLE MALOP STREET, GEELOHG* 



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