AGRICULTURAL BIAS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20089, 19 November 1930, Page 11

AGRICULTURAL BIAS.

WHAT MR ATMORE MEANS. dignity of rural pursuits. The insistence on ' agricultural bins," which has been freely cited as the gospel of the Select Committee which drew up the Education Report, may not be &o vicious a thing aa is generally assumed, according to Mr J. O. Pclson, past-president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, and vice-principal of the Christchurch i'rainiiig College. He told member* of the Canterbury School Committees' Association last night that, after an interview with the Minister for Education tthe Hon H. Atmore), members of the Institute had been much relieved about this phase oi the xtaport Minister's Explanation. The Institute, he said, felt definitely that there should be no attempt in ;V, l -Y school to promote an agricultural bias so that it would assume tin; chaincteristics of vocational training. -Mr Atmore, however, had explained vwiafc was in the minds of members of the committee. As agriculture was the dominant industry in the Dominion, thev had felt that every child, in town or country, should have awakened in him a sense of the dignity and importance of rural pursuits. This considered might be achieved bv having a definite course in agriculture in every school, but the Minister had assured them that if this result could be obtained by any other mn»n« thon lit. wniild nlonsod to consider its adoption Position Bummed Up. "Wo came away happy when we found that this was all that was in the minds of the committee, and „ere perfectly happy to subscribe to it, - ' added Mi Poison. "We stand behind the view expressed in a treatise recently issued by the International Labour Offiee at Geneva, which sums up the situation very aptly: "'Agriculture cannot absorb the .surplus population, which is bound to migrate to the towns. On the whole, it is better that it should so migrate at the outset rather than start on th« I arm and go to town late. Agriculture would be constantly losing its best workers. Agriculture does absorb less and less of the population,. owing to the mechanical means of production. ... " 'Any capital available goes to mechanisation of agriculture, not to employ more labour. It is chimerical l<» suggest that most country children ran enter an agricultural occupation Giving up country children to the towns is n sign of economic progress, lot far more people are released from producing food and raw materials, and so can produce other goods and services. 'Rural bias, if it means keeping the population on the land, is reallv a sentimental end pursued in defiance of a fundamental law of economics. . . Rural bias, if carried to the point which triK» vocational cjuiclnnce, may be attacked ns an improper attempt to force certain croups of the population into certain occupations It verges on subtle interference with the true freedom of contract. The bovs and girls in - the country must have the privilege of the *nme education ns those in the towns.' "