Farmers keen for high country training to begin

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 3

Farmers keen for high country training to begin

Timaru reporter South Island high country runholders want a farm training centre proposed for Ruataniwha to open within 12 months. On of the centre’s main proponents, Mr Bruce Scott, said there was an “almost indecent haste” among runholders to have the centre opened as soon as possible. “Many runholders and their staff are having difficulties keeping up with the colossal technological changes going on in the high country,” he said. The proposal is for a learning centre where young people will be taught new and traditional farming methods on intensive courses of between six weeks and 12 months. Ruataniwaha station was chosen because of facilities available at nearby Twizel, and because the station’s lease is owned and held by the Government. ' Mr Scott warned that positive and early decisions were required to ensure that the opportunities existing now were not lost. He said he would be disappointed if the centre did not open by the start of the next

academic year. He envisaged an initial intake of about 12 students, with the roll eventually rising to more than 30. Mr Scott said agricultural colleges such as Lincoln College were doing a good job, but entry requirements were high and the colleges limited in the number of pupils they could take. “There is no way that the prerequisite for getting into Ruataniwha will be that a joker has to hold University Entrance. The only requirement will be a commitment to the high country,” he said. “We want to teach these fellows how to put up a high altitude fence, how to cultivate in the high country, how to plant trees in this

environment . . . with the emphasis on practice rather than theory.” Ruataniwha station was bought by the Government for use in the Upper Waitaki hydro development scheme. Mr Scott said four neighbouring runholders also disrupted by the hydro scheme were willing to forgo the allocation of parts of Ruataniwha to them as recompense, if the property was used as a farm training centre. The proposal has the backing of the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, who has asked the South Canterbury Community College to study the educational potential of such a centre.