THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. "Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1943 TRAINING FARMS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3255, 21 April 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. "Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1943 TRAINING FARMS

It is evident that many nien are devoting time and attention to the problems of rehabilitation and suggestions well worthy of careful consideration are being made. The board of governors of Massey Agricultural College has submitted to the Minister of Agriculture a report on various aspects of rehabilitation which is along constructive lines. The board sees its way to assist those who do not require State aid, by providing special courses prior to the men engaging in farming operations, and the instruction would undoubtedly be of great value. But it has recommended that men with no knowledge of farming and who would require State assistance should first gain some knowledge of practical farming by wprking under the direction of selected farmers.

It is suggested that the preliminary training should be supervised by someonfe appointed by the Rehabilitation Board or by district committees of farmers, and for practical purposes a committee might be the most effective. After the period of training was over presumably the men would then, if possible, be given a more specialised course. It is at that stage that some people see the opportunity for establishing in the Dominion the class of farm school which, more than anything else, is said to have ensured the success of Danish farming. There the young people, after the completion of their school life, work on the farms for two or three years and later go to the farm school.

These institutions are not costly to run for the students do all the work and the'greatest emphasis has been placed by those who have studied the system not on the work done but on the spirit inculcated. From these Danish farm schools have gone out young men with an enthusiasm for farm work and for the co-operative basis 1 which has done so much to make Denmark a great producer. Men well qualified to judge have asserted that no single factor in the life of the Danish people in the past century has been so effective as the spirit spread by. its farm schools and the possibility of developing a similar type of school here in connection with the rehabilitation of our men should be sympathetically considered.