New Zealand's first local building training: 1897 & 1902

Abstract

The first New Zealand book relating to carpentry held by any library is from Christchurch publisher Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd in 1897. The 90-page book, Manual Training in Woodwork: A Handbook for Scholars of the Primary Schools of New Zealand, was written by FW Sandford and SC Owen. It was one of the company's "Public School Series." The next book is the Department of Education's 1902 Handwork for Schools: Woodwork, authored by EC Isaac. Both provide basic training in the use of tools and instruction to make simple items, such as a folding chair, a bath-mat, a set of bookshelves or even a step-ladder. Isaac's book, as well as "helping teachers who are taking up woodwork in school classes," set out the expectations for a two-year woodwork course under the Manual and Technical Instruction Act 1900. As for the students, its goal was to support them to achieve "full and symmetrical development of the powers of hand and eye as servants of the brain." This included the skills of drawing to scale, as "without drawing, exact and intelligent handwork is scarcely possible." It was not until 1944 that the Army Education Welfare Service (AEWS) published a set of five carpentry booklets for adult learners and 1958 until the Technical Correspondence Schools' Carpentry in New Zealand. The paper explores the history of these two publications and their authors.