KEEN TO LEARN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 146, 22 June 1945, Page 4

KEEN TO LEARN

SCIENCE ON THE FARM

EX-KIWIS AT MASSEY

By C.C.T.—No. 3

In a little stockyard a bullock lay aead. Eyes dilated and tongue lolling out, the beast had just been killed and the group of ex-Kiwis crowded closer. Steam from the still-warm animal curved up queerly in the cold, morning air as the vet. showed us the lethal weapon-«-like a brass telescope, known technically as a humane killer.

The scene was at Massey College dairy farm and we were making a lightning tour to see how the men of Greece, Crete and the Western Desert and the Apennines were faring in their farm training courses under the Rehabilitation Department's scheme. Only a smattering of veterinary science came their way, but it was all part of the vast and complicated technical equipment vital to the modern farmer.

The lads soon got busy on the bullock, which, we -were assured, was due to die, anyhow. They jabbed instruments into its flesh and dissected with the skill and detachment of a Harley Street surgeon. They did things you can't do to a live bullock without hurting it, and possibly yourself. But we had to move on. "Grandpop would have laughed at this one," observed a rugged veteran of Takrouna as he plunged a hypodermic needle into an obliging heifer, who hardly batted an eyelid. The boys watched carefully and asked questions. What was the ratio in the solution again? How did you avoid the main artery in the neck? Some of the others had a turn. Milk fever can cause a mighty lot of trouble on the farm. These boys were learning how to meet it. Test-Tubes and Microscopes f ln the woolclassing shed a party was examining and comparing varying fibres and taking notes. Later, up in the lab., they peered through microscopes — recognising hairiness in wool. Ever worn a pair of pyjamas which tickle? That's usually hairiness in wool, something manufacturers try to avoid. . The class carried on. . . . More notes. They paused for a photograph and swapped wisecracks in which the lecturer joined ... a brief interlude, and back to the test-tubes and microscopes. . . . More notes.

From the cloistered and academic atmosphere of the lab., we descended the hill and reappeared behind a shed to catch some soldier students casting concrete posts. Others were tinkering with farm machinery in the engineering workshops, getting the feel of the tools, seeing how it's done and doing it themselves. Valuable lessons these when one gets that 100-acre farm, on the Foxton line, near Morrinsville, or just out of Kaikohe.

Of course, there's always the Dad-and-Dave type of philosophy on the farm. As a boy you watched dad at it. What was good enough for dad was good enough for you, etc. Loyal, yes, but you can't get by with that to-day. Agricultural science moves too fast. Must streamline our farm technique, keep up to the minute. After all, could dad repair a tractor, treat a cow for mammitis, detect hairiness in wool and carry out a reductase test?

Billeted at Linton Camp Ex-servicemen students are enjoying life at Massey College, even though many of them are not there long enough to enter fully into university activities. This year because of inadequate accommodation at 'the college, they eat and sleep in Army huts at Linton Camp, some three or four miles away. They travel to and fro mornings, lunch time and evenings in Army trucks, and, perforce, haye only restricted use of college facilities such as the sports equipment, library, debating club and other cultural offshoots. It might be thought that the men would prefer to be detached entirely from Army associations, but if so none of them is complaining. They realise it is only a makeshift arrangement. I had the privilege of lunching with the boys. It was sound, wholesome tucker, they told me, better than Army rations. I agreed. Important institution and only recent at that (how important any ex-Kiwi will aver) was the wet canteen. That is one amenity the boys will miss when they return to Massey College to board. And return they will just as soon as a new hostel is erected to add to the rapidly-growing cluster of buildings. The hostel will be constructed of building materials from a local camp which is being dismantled. Tenders, it is understood, are to be called shortly, so that next year's rehabilitated students should be in occupation in the more appropriate precincts of the university itself. Luncheon over, the boys drifted into the sunshine outside' and had some fun with a football. Among them was Peter Hanan, ex-R.A.F. England and India, and noted as a former New Zealand sprint swimming champion. The lads are trying to help themselves in providing sports equipment, which is badly needed, but a little outside assistance wouldn't go amiss. A Self-contained Unit Clearly adult men who have been overseas fighting for their country have different interests and a different outlook from the younger students in their late 'teens or early twenties. While they are free to come and go and make the fullest use of the college facilities they are propably happier in their own hostel and cohabiting as a self-contained unit. So the new hostel at the college will be for the exclusive use of exservicemen.

Discipline for the younger civilian students obviously must be stricter than for the rehabilitated men. Thus, while the returned men are free to mingle with other students and participate to the full in recreational and cultural activities, their association probably happier in their own hostel is regarded as most desirable. Personal contact with ex-service-men students reinforces the view that if the staff speaks highly about the keenness of the students the latter are most appreciative of the keenness of the staff. Instead of being subjected to laborious notetaking they are supplied with cyclostyled notes which they are permitted to retain, thus providing a well of information from which, when on the farm, they can draw at will. In addition they receive a number of free textbooks embracing important phases of agriculture. "We feel we're definitely getting somewhere here," one student, a former city worker in a newspaper office, told me. "They seem to think of everything here, and cannot do enough for us."