SCHOOL GARDENS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 147, 3 April 1941, Page 6

SCHOOL GARDENS.

McFARLANE SHIELD PRESENTED

CEREMONY AT FLEMING!TON. There was a. pleasant gathering of parents and friends at the Fleniington School yesterday when the McFarlane Shield, awarded ilio school for work in agricultural science during 1910 was presented. Messrs Stanley Smith and S. Baird represented the Canterbury Education Board and Mr \Y. A. Service (Senior Inspector of Schools), who* inspected the school in the morning, was also present. In introducing the Board’s representatives and Mr Service, Mr C. IV. Anderson (chairman of the School Committee) expressed the pleasure of the Committee and parents at the success the school had gained. Ho congratulated the teacher and children on the standard of work that had been maintained.

Mr Smith explained the features for which the McFarlane Shield was awarded. It was no mean honour, he said, to win the shield, as it was open for competition by all schools between the Rangitata and Clarence rivers. He congratulated the Flemington School upon its success and congratulated, too, the neighbouring schools, Willowby and Elifielton, upon the high standard of their agricultural work. It was unique, he said, to find three schools in one corner of the Board’s area all doing such fine work in the creation of beautiful environments and all maintaining a very high standard of work in agricultural science. All had received awards in the Board’s garden competitions.

Mr Service added his congratulations, and remarked upon the great change wrought in the school environment since his visit five years ago. It was right, he said, that it should be so. Adults demanded the improvements that science had brought and the best wc could give was our children’s light. To be educated in such a. beautiful environment, to work and play in school grounds such as Flemington now had, would have a permanent effect upon the children’s .lives and outlook. In presenting the shield, Mr Baird referred to Flemington’s increasing successes during the past three years, for two of which they had won the sole charge section and been runners-up in the open section of tho competitions. He contrasted school grounds and the interest in agriculture in his own teaching days with the standards being maintained to-dav. Ho asked tho teacher (ftir L. A. Heyward) to accept the shield with the Board’s congratulation and thanks.

Replying, Air Heyward expressed tho pleasure fj the children and himself in being awarded tho shield, but said that the work done had not been carried out merely to gain an award but for its own intrinsic value and for the benefit to the children now and in their nl’fer lives.

For the children, Nancy Thompson and Bill Bird thanked the visitors for their attendance and assured them that the school would continue the work that had merited the award of the shield. After the ceremony afternoon tea was served by the ladies of the district,