The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley, SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1912. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATIONAL METHODS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIII, Issue XVIII, 3 August 1912, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley, SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1912. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATIONAL METHODS.

The Wanganui Board of Education is one of the most progressive bodies of its class in New Zealand, perhaps in the Southern Hemisphere. We are well aware that good work is done by other Education Boards in the doir.inion, with regard to what may be called the popularisation of instruction in agricultural subjects, there are Boards that began tj plan and act before it. But so far as we know, no Board in the dominion has yet planned and provided a course equal to that which is to be begun in the Haw era district by the Wanganui Board on Monday, the sth instant Everything connected with the new departure appears to have been well thought out beforehand, and we think we may be allowed to say that in no part of the education district could the scheme have been set going with so much propriety as in Hawera for here the Press, public bodies, public men, and the settlers generally have been specially insistent on the need for some such change as that which has been decided on by the Board; and no doubt the Board's Hawera members, Messrs Dixon and ODea, have fully represented Hawera's needs and wishes in the matter. Still, the Board, as a whole, is entitled to unqualified credit for what it has done, but very likely the Board itself would pass most of the kudos on to its chief inspector, Mr G. D. Braik. Anyway, it has indeed done well in resolving to begin special agricultural classes onMonday next at Hawera. The course is to cover ten successive days, and the teacher in each branch-of instruction is to be a special expert. Poul-try-raising, veterinary science, prunin", grafting, spraying, manuring, and topdressing, winter feeding and herd testing are the subjects in which instruction is to be given. They are all strictly practical, and seem to be well suited for a primary course in agricultural science. There will probably be little, ir any, technical terminology in connection with any of the subjects, and it will be encouraging Mid otherwise good lor all concerned if each class has a full complement of pupils. In that case the knowledge gained and the interest created will amply justify the Board m carrying out the whole of its programme, for, as the chief inspector says. ••!& 13 proposed that the spring course shall be followed in November by a course suited to the special needs or that month, and by further courses m the early and late autumn." All must hope that the Italian proverb from small sparks great fires have arisen may be exemplified in this case, aiid that the work thus begun by the Wanganui Education Board may spread throughout the whole dominion especin y -i condition dwelt on by Mr Braik is steadily maintained—that the human or humanistic element shall still be treated as the highest in education, and indispensable even in connection v "lstruct'on in agriculture. Yet though we ourselves are staunch upholders of literary culture as the most humanising of all the branches of education we do not see why even technical knowledge, if imparted, assimilated, and applied m the right way and spirit, should fail to elevate character or stimulate the imagination, especially technical knowledge connected with the great universal science of agriculture which brings, or should bring, those who study and follow it into intimate touch with some of the profoundest principles and processes of nature while providing for the nourishment and maintenance of all mankind. This assumption, in fact, has been fully sustained by actual experience in America .and especially in connection with the famous University of Wisconsin of which the Co 1 legs of Letters 'and Science is the central and dominant feature. Yet the University carries on work of the kind which is to be begun here on Monday by the Wanganui Education Board. Of course it is on a larger scale, because the University has been in existence for many years and the methods too, are different; but the object is the same in both cases —popular and practical instruction to residents of agricultural districts in those districts. A gentleman, who knows the University and the great work it does in all its branches, says of its extension or outdoor classes that "there are experimental stations in many parts of the State, and periodical visits are paid by members of the staff to every portion of the State, in order to give direct instruction to the farmer in the vicinity of his own farm on his requirements, lo this end a railway car is fitted up with the necessary materials for demonstration, and tours of from seven to 14 days aiv made along the various railway lines. The ear is passed into a siding the farmers are collected, and instruction given. So we find 'the crop improvement car' on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul road spends 10 days, and the lectures are attended by 1595 farmers. On the Chicago and Northwestern line, the More and Better Livestock special is attended in five days by 4000 farmers." Though this is different in its scale and in its details from the Wanganui Education Board's programme, it is identical in its spirit and its objects; which is encouraging to New Zealanclers, on account of what they are attempting and what they, may hope to achieve in the fulness of"time As to actual results, they are so plain and positive that he who runs may read them in the State of Wisconsin. Che extension or outdoor work to which we have been referring is apart from the research and general educational \vork of the University, but it has made Wisconsin farmers the most intelHjr^t and successful in the Republic, while I 'Professor Moore's fifteen years' work in the College of Agriculture in connection with tha breeding of seeds has resulted in the production of a strain of barley which gives an increased yield in Wipconsin of £2,000.000 per annum Simfl* work has been followed by like results in the breeding of wheat, and fine work has been done in the control of smuts in wheat by treatment with formaldehyde, and also by heating." So that it is indeed worthy work, biowi^h splendid potentialities', Avhich the Wanganui Education Board is to begin at Hawera on Monday next. We must all hope it may thoroughly succeed here, and spread in cine course throughout the whole dominion.