The Movement At Home.

"My interest in this work," proceeded Dr. McDowell," was furthered by my visit to the Old Country in 1906, when this Chamber honoured me with election as one of its three representatives at the Conference of the Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, which was held in London in that year. Through this appointment I was brought into contact with the educational work conducted by the great Chamber of Commerce of London. I was kindly furnished with special letters of introduction in connection with commercial education by our late Prime Minister, who, I may say, always took a keen interest in this School of Commerce development in connection with the University. I had opportunities of visiting the Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, and also of studying the London School of Economics and Political Science, a most interesting School, recognised by the University of London. At that time Mr. Mackinder (now M.P.) was the director of this School. It is a School which recognises the importance of fostering commercial education in every way. It has lectures on all sorts of interesting topics of commercial life. I wish to refer to a few of the lectures which are given in connection with it. There are lectures given, I may say, mostly after business hours, on Eco- page 6 nomics, Accounting and Business Methods, Insurance, Transport, Banking and Currency, Commercial Law, Geography, History, Foreign Trade, Industrial Law, Railway Operating, Political Position of Great Powers, Sociology, and Public Administration. That list shows on what a broad basis this School of Economics has developed, and one of the most interesting features in connection with it is the way in which the large business interests send their men to the School for instruction. The large insurance, railway, and banking companies, the big municipal trading corporations, Government departments, and others, send their men to it. It is interesting to note that the present director of this great School of I Commerce, which has a great library, a most wonderful library, is a New Zealander, our late High Commissioner, the Hon. W. P. Reeves. I think we New Zealanders should take due pride in the fact that New Zealanders are at the head of so many great educational institutions in the world. For instance, there is Dr. McLaurin, head of the famous Boston Technological Institute, who, though not born in New Zealand, was educated at our local Grammar School and University College, and Professor Rutherford, I of Manchester University, in the foremost rank of the world's scientists, is a New Zealander. Nor must we forget the recent appointment of our fellow-townswoman, Miss Whitelaw, to the coveted position of headmistress of Wycombe Abbey School, one of the most celebrated schools for the secondary education of girls in England.