THAT RURAL BIAS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11323, 29 September 1930, Page 3

THAT RURAL BIAS

TERM THAT IS VAGUE

HUMOROUS QUESTIONS

TECHNICAL COLLEGE MEMBER’S : VIEW. r ‘ JTUiSt' what is' “Agricultural bias?” Judging by. tho discussion at a meeting of. the Wanganui Technical Collego Board of Governors the term is more than delightfully vague. ; Mr W. H." Swanger quoted the clause relating to it in the report of the Parliamentary Recess Committee on Education.

| "If anybody can tell me what that means I will be glarl,” he said. “The Minister may know what is meant or intended by ‘agricultural bias,’ but it seems to me that this.is just beating the air. We all realise the importance of. primary industries, but I don’t think that it is the intention that every pupil should be taught farming, but rather to: make them take an interest In' primary industries.”

1 Continuing, Mr Swanger said that the establishment of a school farm in connection with the Wanganui Technical College had»been taken np enthusiastically some years ago. A committee had scoured the district trying to find one. The price of land was high at the time. ‘■Apart from that aspect,” he went on, “the Government is not going to find this farm. We will have to provide. it and, for years, it will be difficult to raise the money necessary to do it. There were several practical men who served on that committee and they told us we did not want to teach.boys to plough, to harrow, but to teach.them the • science of the soil. That can bo done in the schools now. You can’t teach a boy to become a judge of stock in a year or two- That takes a lifetime of study, and it is the most important thing in farming. The man who can’t go to the sales and pick out the good stock from the J>ad will never make a successful farmer. Tho work done in the schools in the past, and still being done, is on the right lines. It teaches the elementary principles of farming.- But take a man in a Government position, with a boy who takes the agricultural course. What are you going to do with the bov when he leaves College? You get him a job on a station. somewhere and he becomes a laborer on a sheep farm. The price of land is another big thing. The. Government won’t supply you with a farm. ’ A Voice : Yes it will: it will finance you Mr. Swanger: Pardon me, I know something about mortgages, mortgagees and mortgagors. : He quoted from a newspaper, extracts from an amusing article which had been written in sarcastic .vein round the term “Agricultural bias.” The writer suggested that as so much prominence had been given to the matter a list of a, few “practical” questions for examination papers of the' future would not come amiss. Some of .these w.eye distinctly humorous. “Lf A can milk a cow in seven minutes, B in 10 minutes, and C in 12 minutes, how long will it take the three of them, milking together, to milk one cow?” “Tell what you know about a mortgage. Explain the difference between a first mortgage and a fourth.” “Do you know anything about land for settlement? Explain, if you can, how to become a successful farmer without capital. (Note: You may use your notebook for this question, as it has never yet been satisfactorily answered).” “What is- meant by the expressions ‘Working on the Mortgagee’ and ‘An order on the milk cheque?’ ” “What is (a) land tax and (b) income. tax? Explain why farmers should pay both- Give a list of the taxes a farmer has to pay. In the following lines underline the appropriate adjective, adverb or noun: — Farmers are critical cheerful captious . contented. Farmers are always for against the Government , Farmers buy 1 : limousines flivvers gigs. Farming is easy hard delightful monotonous. Farmers’ profits are large small nil. “If the Government will solve the problem of finding land and assist the !>oys on to it u here will bo no need for agricultural bias” Mr Swanger stated. “It is a question of £ s. d.” Mr-Alien: Why not create the demand: first? . ; Mr Swanger: The demand is there: If yoU: went through this school'you would find 100 boys willing to go on the land- It is the desire of almost every boy to get on,tho land in this country, but most of them have very little- hope' of ’ being ’able to', do it. . ( Mr Allen: Then what'would you make of. them ? . Lawyers ? • ' Mr - Swanger: You bring a boy in from a country district ; to -a • large centre to .give him a good education, and he becomes disheartened when he sees- boys going unto banks and offices while he has to go hack and herd sheep or milk cows. •• You are- defeating the. object of creating a liking for the land by educating boys in .the 'cities.' ...' , ; ,