The Fiji Times of April 23, 1964 published an article on the development of the Derrick Technical Institute.
According to the story the Secretary for Technical Co-operation had agreed to a Colonial Development and Welfare grant made towards the building of a hostel to be attached to the Derrick Technical Institute.
This was announced by the then Governor Sir Derek Jakeway when opening the new £239,250 institute at Samabula.
He said the grant would meet the 90 per cent of the £50,000 cost of the hostel and would come not from Fiji’s territorial allocation but from the central allocation for technical education “thus automatically supplementing our territorial allocation by an equivalent amount.”
“Subsequent developments would be planned to match such specific training needs as arose but they would most certainly include additional special laboratories and lecture rooms to provide for higher level courses for technicians and students of commercial subjects,” Sir Derek said.
The assistant director of technical education for NSW Mr J M Carswell was one of the guests who attended the official opening.
The governor said it was Carswell’s earlier visit to Fiji that started the flow of educational assistance Fiji was received from Australia under the Commonwealth Co-operation in education scheme.
“Three local tradesmen on the staff of the institute as technical instructors received their technical teacher training in Australia two years ago wholly at Australia’s expense.”
“The principal of this institute (Mr J W Wilson ) has also been lent to us for two years at a purely nominal cost to Fiji.
“It can be seen that the contribution already made by Australia to the development of technical education in Fiji is considerable.”
Sir Derek said although the institute was handed over to the director of education the previous year, the opening ceremony was left because furnishing and equipping such an establishment was a prolonged business.
“The original estimate of cost was £169,000 but subsequently price increases and modifications caused this to rise to nearly £240,000, 90pc of which was provided as a free grant by the British government.”
