IN PUBLIC WORKS CAMPS

Evening Star, Issue 22526, 19 December 1936, Page 12

IN PUBLIC WORKS CAMPS

W.E.A. TUTORS WELCOMED MEN KEEN FOR EDUCATION Organisers of the Workers’ Educational Association of Otago who visited, several of the public works camps in the back country during the past two, weeks mot with a warm welcome from the men engaged on road-making, tunnelling, and irrigation. It has been arranged that .special tutors shall go out to the camps for about three weeks in January. Prom all appearances the short season of lectures, discussions, debates, and possibly one or two social evenings will be well supported. For some years past the W.E.A. has been providing public works employees at Waitaki Hydro and in Central Otago and elsewhere with opportunities for the study of the social sciences and cultural subjects such as music, art, drama, and literature. At the Hydro this year there were three groups, one taking economics (a correspondence course from Auckland) and two cultural courses under the Canterbury “ box ” scheme. Some thorough work was done, the economics group, for instance, talcing three nights over a rather difficult paper in order to get a real grip of the intricacies of finance and international trade. The students who were at the Hydro have now for the most part moved on, the' construction work being about completed, but several new works of considerable size are under way in Otago. There are about 200 men in the neighbourhood of Hollyford, on the Eglinton Valley road to Milford, 150 on the Haast Pass road (Otago side), 160 on the Milton-Baldutha highway, 100 at Milford Sound, 80 on the Clyde-Crom-well Gorge road, 50 at Lindis Pass, and 50 at the Fraser River irrigation dam. Most_ of the work of the W.E.A. tutors in January will be at Hollyford, Haast Pass, and Lindis Pass. The camps that are nearer to towns are not in the same need, whilst the difficulty of access to the Milford Sound end of the now road has obliged the association unwillingly to postpone its project for a tutor’s visit there. At the Lindis Pass and Haast Pass camps Mr A. C. Davidson will be the tutor for" the short course. He is undertaking this as a voluntary task during the vacation of his school in Dunedin. Mr Davidson, besides his ability as a student of the social sciences and other subjects, has the advantage of having been in close touch with the workers at the Hydro when he was head of the district high school at Kurow. He is known to a number of those in the camps. He will lecture on the history of public works in Now Zealand, the slump and other economic issues, and may also speak on the rocks of the district and give some biographical sketches. He hopes also to pay short visits to Fraser’s Dam and Clyde. Mr R. I. M. Burnett has been asked to accompany him, but may not be available. At Hollyford, where there are three

outlying camps besides the main camp, the tutoring will be done by two of the most brilliant graduates of recent years —Mr Angus Ross, who has specialised in history, and Mr C. G. F. Simkin (economics). Mr Ross will speak mainly on world affairs and Mr Simkin on various New Zealand problems. The W'.E.A. has received generous assistance from the public works engineers in the way of information and advice, transport facilities, and so forth. The secretaries and presidents of the local workers’ unions at the various camps have also given valued assistance in bringing the men together and impressing upon them the worth of the proposed educational courses. It is hoped that the short courses in January may open the way to further educational work in the camps during the winter. Tbe Minister of Public "Works has expressed himself_ as being anxious to promote such activities.