FORESTRY SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 78, 29 September 1934, Page 7

FORESTRY SCHOOL

NO WORK FOR STUDENTS

Suggestions that tho Government should reconsider tho proposal to close tho School of Forestry at Canterbury; College were made when the Education Estimates were under consideration in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, but it was explained on behalf of tho Government that the difficulty was to find employment for men. who took diplomas at the school. The Commissioner of State Forests (tho Hon. E. A. Ransom) said that thero was a danger in training students in forestry when there was no reasonable prospect of employing1 them. At the present time they had men in the Forestry Department doing labourers' work who held the diploma of forestry. In view of the difficulty of obtaining suitable employment for holders of diplomas he did not think that the Government would bo justified in keeping the school going. The hope that tho school would b8 continued was expressed by Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Labour, Avon), who said that the institution had fully proved its value. Thero were many officers of the Forestry Department today who held diplomas and were carrying out very; efficient work. Mr. T. D. Burnett (Government, Temuka) said that'it would be a most unwise move to close the school down as they required all the knowledge they could get in regard to forestry. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) said that it would be most unfair to prospective students to keep the school open when there was little or no prospect of providing employment in. forestry undertakings. It would only; be misleading to students. •