, 1891-09-30
THE REAL SOURCE OF WEALTH.
From the Demerara Arqosyl

PV"iV" ~ 'he Ddaty Chronicle a week a"o. it
was most gratlfylng to see that at last the
question OF technical and agricultural educa-
ton had become one which the teachers them.
selves had resolved to take in hand Mr. Hnvar5
moved and Mr.. Carlo seconded tbe following
motion
Whereas the educational requirements of the
colony demand that agricultural and technical
instruction be introduced into thesystem now in
vogue. BE 1T resolved;-Th 1t the present CON
ference take into serious consideration the sub
lects thereof with a view to advance the ideas of
the Inspector of Schools on the subject.
In the discussion which followed. the mover
SAID ne had been taught in st. Johns College,
Antigua, to regard industrial training as an
lnseparable branch of the curriculum; no stu
dent was exemp ed; the College grew a great
part OF Its own provisions, and there were vari-
Gus departments for teaching the various trades.
When he returned to this colony he conducted
his school in Stanley Town upon the same lines
and the children soon revealed a desire for
manual labour. Mr.. Carlo, the seconder of the
motion, said he had seen industrial schools in
England, and he thought the difficulties in the
way OF establishing them here could soon be-
overcome. Mr.. Isaac said he had taught him
self farming by reading books on the subject.
and now he considered himself a successful til.
Ter OF the soil. Mr.. r. Williams said he also had
taught himself farming, and he hoped to have
seen the yamS, he had grown, ON the breakfast
table OF the Conference, but they had arrived
too late. The vans were brought in and laid
before the meeting. The other teachers did
not seem to take up the question with equal
heartlnesS, but we cannot expect rooted preiu-
dic0s to be overcome all ola sudden. That
certain teachers of the young, of their own ac-
cord, have brought forward this subject of in
dustrlal education, and advocated the adoption
OF measures to teach the children to work
while they are IN their school days, is n great
deal to bethankful for and we look forward
confidently to the project growing steady in po-
pularity. In abiding itoit, in our opening sem
tence we described it as the question of tech
meal and agricultural education: but we should
have placed agriculture in the first place as de-
serving Of the greater attention. In the mat
ter of technical education, we shall be able to
teach the children very little when we set
about 1t, no matter how earnestly we desire to
do SO. To teach them any of the domestic
trades will not be attended with any consider
able difficulty but it must always be kept in
view that there Is a very limited opening for
mechanics and ~artizans in this colony. and.
always will be. Tailors, shoemakers, carpen-
tiers, printers, bakers, and so on will be reouir-
ed, but only for our own necessities. They will q
never he required for any export trade; and we
can never hope to see large factories if. our
cities or iron works or any of the larger indus
tries of the kind which would depend upon an
export trade for their existence. Our one great
held Tor our thews and sinews, is the soil, and
IN no other part of the world is there more
generous land waiting to reward the indus
tnous agricultural labourer. Hitherto. for
reasons which we need not stay to refer to at
length, the labouring man who by his own
industry and thrift has been enabled to give
his children a better education than he himself
received, has secuted the idea of his sons giving
their attention to the cultivation of the soil.
de has striyen to getdhem into the position
OF a clerk, or a dispenser, or a schoolmaster, or
a member of a close profession. But in no case
which has come under our notice has he ever
sent his son 70 the mother country to serve
his time upon a farm, to learn all that could be
learnt there, then to return to make his living
by the soil of his native land. The prejudice
against the manual labour which would be in
separable from such a course as we have refer
red to has never been overcome, even although
the then Inspector of Schools showed those
people he was coming in contact with every
day, such an excellent example, by placing his
own son on a model farm, where he had to
trudge through. all the fatigue duty which falls
to the ordinary chaw-bacon when first he goes
to work. Our Government, too, have done
nothing to break down the prejudice which