PAEROA DISTRICT SCHOOL

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 59, Issue 4249, 1 March 1950, Page 5

PAEROA DISTRICT SCHOOL

(TO THE EDITOR) Sir, —I read with interest a letter i under the above heading in your issue of February 20. In some respects it is worthy of reply. The writer apparently endorses the headmaster’s action in writing a letter to the Paeroa branch of Federated Farmers which, to all right thinking people, could only be termed as totally unworthy of the position held by the writer and, I hope, of the headmaster himself.

All school instruction should include encouragement to observe the common courtesies of life, and it is, to say the least, disturbing to find our own headmaster giving written credence of a total lack of that quality, which would set the necessary example to our children.

Let the public clearly understand that the sub-committee set up by the Paeroa branch of Federated Farmers to consider ways and means of assisting towards the operation of the Reward agriculture scheme in Our school worked in close co-operation with the school committee, having at its initial meeting the chhirman of the said committee. The main purpose of the sub-committee was to consider the refusal of the Auckland Education Board to grant a sum of approximately £l7O to furnish the requirements of an annual survey camp in connection with the Reward scheme of agriculture training in the school. In recommending to the branch meeting that the Paeroa branch of Federated Farmers sponsor an effort to raise the money, each member of that small sub-committee pledged a generous donation which gave promise of reaching the goal of £l7O without much difficulty, added to which was a generous donation from the Hauraki Agricultural and Pastoral Association, which gave endorsement of that body to the effort. This money was to have be%n handed over to the school committee for the purpose stated, it being understood that the headmaster’s approval was in no way fn doubt.

We are entitled to be interested in the training our children are receiving at school, and who better than the farming community to judge the merits of an agricultural course of instruction ? The headmaster should have been the first to appreciate the endorsement of the farming community of the course in operation at the school bj’ so generously donating towards its extension. We do not challenge the headmaster’s right to run the school—that is his job—but we do challenge his right to stand in the name of the Paeroa District High School and deliberately misinterpret generous intentions, to the detriment of future appeals (one of which is before me as I write) that may be made in the name of the school during his head-

mastership and long after he has gone.

Finally, Sir, as one who has experienced the employment of trainees from agricultural colleges, I would be pleased to challenge Eleanor M. Stock to a public debate on the merits of the Reward scheme as compared with that of recognised agricultural colleges which with silver spoon extravagances do impart sound and worthwhile ininstruction, but unfortunately the worthwhile knowledge is often too easily forgotten while the silver spoon extravagances remain.—l am, Sir, OLIVER PORTE LIDDELL, Sec. Sub-committee Paeroa branch Federated Farmers.