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makers, carpenters, book-binders and printers. We feel strongly that the Salesian Institute is an agency in the field of technical and industrial education in Hong Kong which is deserving of all possible encouragement.

VII. Industrial Education.

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work in

112. Under this head the Singapore Education Committee of 1925 emphasizes The valua the aversion of the boys of Singapore to manual crafts. The Committee went on to of manual refer to the fact that in the lower forms of all local schools in Malaya, Government, schools. aided or unaided, English or vernacular, modern methods of developing the "think- ing hand' were being pursued and that drawing, modelling in paper and plasticine, in raffia and rattan were being practiced and that in the best schools the practice of these forms of manual training was correlated with the teaching of languages, arith- metic, and geography, which meant that manual subjects were forming a legitimate part of general mental training. The Committee added:--

"This is as far as instruction in manual craft can go for children below the age of 12.

of 12. But it is clear that manual instruction should not cease with the elementary school but that instruction in carpentry and simple iron work garden- ing and so on should be provided for boys above the age of 12 both in verna- cular and English schools.

chief instruc-

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113. The Committee recommended that in all English Schools in Malaya, both A qualified Government and aided, facilities should be provided in gardening and carpentry and simple iron work and that Chinese Schools should receive a special grant in aid of manual work any classes that they might start in those or allied subjects for boys above the age foundation of 12. The Committee insisted that to introduce manual work effectively and to stone of make it an integral part of the curriculum it would not suffice to employ local car- education, penters or to leave the supervision of the manual work teaching in the hands of head- masters, unacquainted with the modern methods of the subject. The Committee therefore advocated the appointment of a chief instructor for manual work graduate possessing the City and Guilds certificate in Manual Training. The Committee felt that such an appointment would prove to be the foundation stone of all technical training in Malaya.

114. We have not attempted to investigate this aspect of the technical educa- tion problem of Hong Kong. We believe it to be a vital one and we commend these remarks to the consideration of the Education Department of this Colony. We have refrained mainly on grounds of economy from suggesting that a graduate possessing the City and Guilds certificate in Manual Training should be recruited for the Staff of our proposed Technical School. We hope that the Principal of the School will be able to direct this work himself. Should the Government of Hong Kong feel that a Manual Instructor of the high qualifications demanded by the Singapore Committee should be recruited for this Colony without delay and that the establishment of the proposed Technical School would be a suitable occasion for making such an appointment, we should be very glad to hear that our proposals had been modified in this direction.

VIII. Conclusion.

115. Our conclusions are:-

1

(1) That the significance of the University's Faculty of Engineering as the only existing local agency for higher technical education and the limita- tions therein involved should be realized and that the distinction between the function which that Faculty as a component part of a British University can properly perform and such work as can be rightly handled by a technical school recognized; but that the close co-operation of the University's Engineer- ing Staff and the local industries and the interest of that Staff in technical education of all grades, and particularly of the intermediate grade, are essential to the well-being not only of the Engineering Faculty but also of the whole system of technical education of the Colony-the creation of a general system of technical education for the whole Colony being long overdue;