AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 16 June 1928, Page 16

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

THE NEEDS OE THE COUNTRY PEOPLE. “This is a primary products country,” Mr. F. R. Cooke said, at last week’s meeting of the Board of Governors of the Christchurch Technical College.; “Every child in the country should )>e educated in agriculture. It should have knowledge, at least in re- | gard to grasses, roots ami cereals. Mr. Cook’s remarks were, based on the report, of the hoard’s Agricultural Committee, with the following recommendations from the conference of technical school teachers regarding the retention of agricultural courses in the large, urban .technical high schools: “That agricultural courses should he conducted in the larger towng. of the Dominion, or within 20 miles thereof, at places conveniently served, from the town, by railway, to provide instruction, particularly for town boys and those of its immediate precincts, with a .desire for rural and kindred operations.

“That in-view of the future .calling of the pupils, the courses should contain a. reasonable proportion of, and observation of, work of a. practical nature on. the land and in suitablyequipped workshops and laboratories, corresponding with the preliminary courses given to. hoys who intend to take up, say, engineering trade, work. “That the hoards and the Education Department should be prepared' to spend corresponding amounts ,011 the provision of facilities for .agricultural as on those for trade .training. “That the area of land provided might he small where the roll numbers are small, hut should range up to 30 acres where the. enrolment of hoys is considerable, so as to allow work and observation to he carried on under practical field conditions. This did not allow to any extent for running live stock on the school farm, hut instruction in this important section of the work could he carried out fairly satisfactorily by visits to sale yards, agricultural shows and stud farms.

“The work of the agricultural course should be co-ordinated with that- of the nature study and agricultural courses of the primary schools on the one hand, and where advisable with the work of the Massey and Canterbury Agricultural Colleges jon the other.”