SHEARING BY SCHOOLBOYS

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24151, 10 January 1944, Page 4

SHEARING BY SCHOOLBOYS

WORK OF PRACTICAL VALUE

NORTH ISLAND EXPERIMENT •• The Press ” Special Service DUNEDIN, January 8.

During the last two seasons nearly 7000 sheep have been shorn by boys of the Pukekohe Technical High School in the Auckland Province, and an outline of the national aspect of the work taught to the boys taking the agricultural course at the school was given by the headmaster, Mr W. F. J. Munro. Mr Munro, who is visiting Dunedin, said that the course was eminently practical, the boys being taught ordinary general subjects in addition to practical subjects such as forge work, farm carpentry, and a practical knowledge of shearing, which had been found very useful on account of the shortage of shearers in the district. The boys of the school had stepped in and had taken their place to such good effect, Mr Munro said, that the sheepowners of the district had not been inconvenienced through the lack of shearers. In the 1942 season, just under 3000 sheep were, shorn on the school grounds in a shearing shed I erected by the boys themselves. In the season recently completed. 4000 sheep were handled. The work included shearing, picking up, classing, baling, pressing, marking, and the dispatch of the wool. Twelve boys were engaged in the operations this season, of whom six were first-year pupils, three secondyear, and three senior pupils. The work was carried out under the supervision of the agricultural instructor (Mr P. Gallagher). At the end of the season a competition was conducted among the boys, whose work showed excellent finish, in spite of the fact that some of the young shearers stood little higher than the sheep. The school owns its own flock of stud Southdowns.