Sessional_Paper_1934 — Page 148

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The Building side must cover levelling and setting out, foundations, reinforced con- crete work, drainage, carpenter's and joiner's work, plumbing, house wiring, brick- work and masonry, preparation of bills of quantities, estimates, etc. In addition to Trade knowledge some experience of teaching, preferably evening classes, would be an advantage, while it is considered essential that all instructors should have covered an approved lecture course at a Technical Institution of good standing.

It would be extremely unsound and wasteful to regard these instructors as available for "trade" or "shop work" instruction only. One of their main duties during expansion will be the supervision of the training up of well educated young Chinese as instructors in the separate trades comprising the course. The language difficulty makes it essential that much of the trade training in Senior Courses, and all such training in Part Time and Minor Courses, should be given in Chinese: close supervision of the Chinese instructors will be required, and it is felt that between giving the necessary lectures and supervising in the shops, the European staff will be very fully occupied.

The Scale of Pay which seems appropriate to the Senior Instructor in the Engineering Department, who must hold a First Class Board of Trade Certificate in Marine Engineering is £450-30-£750.

The assistant (who should have specialised either in electrical machinery or automobile repair) would receive £400-20-£600.

The instructors in the Building Department would be paid at £400-20-£600 with £50 additional for the Senior Instructor.

It will be observed that it is proposed to put these instructors on a ten years' scale, by which time it will be possible to decide whether the Lecturer's grade should be instituted.

Since the success of the Trade School will depend very largely on the quality of its staff, the greatest care must be taken in their selection. It is not merely a case of selecting four good men, but rather of making a selection so that each is complementary to the others, among whom the pattern maker provided for in this year's estimates must be included. It is also possible that, in order to attract a specially good man, one or two increments would require to be allowed for approved experience; and if this were done for one man some general readjustment might be required.

For these reasons combined with the fact that, so far as is known, there is at present no one in England with the requisite local and technical knowledge re- quired for the selection of the Staff, it is strongly felt that, if the scheme is to proceed, the Staff should be selected by a committee of which the Principal should be a member.

The appointments should be made at least six months before the Staff is re- quired in the Colony; the question of their giving notice to their employers is unlikely to be serious, but the value of each individual can probably be greatly increased by sending each to do a six months' course at an additional trade before leaving England.

Age:-Instructors should preferably be 25-27 years of age on appointment. Leave: Special arrangements will require to be made to establish a leave rota,

as it is obviously impossible to get in a substitute from outside.

It is expected that, by the time any question of leave arises, the pattern maker of the Junior Technical School will have trained up an assistant who will be able to relieve him of much of the elementary work. The qualifications which it is expected that the pattern mkaer will have are such that he should, after some train- ing in the Trade School, be able to act as a substitute where necessary in both the Building and Engineering Departments.