ATTRACTION TO THE LAND

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 48, 13 November 1929, Page 2

ATTRACTION TO THE LAND

AGRICULTURAL COURSES FAIL

Agricultural courses have not attracted, and do not attract, either bovs or their parents to the extent that they should do. The fact that during recent years they have been attracting them less and less, points unmistakably to the real evil that has to be cured. Boys do not seek to prepare themselves for a career on the land while they see no hope of finding it. In 1916 thirteen out of the twenty secondary schools attended by boys taught agriculture, and 48 per cent of their boys learned the subject. In 1928 sixt en out of 28 such schools provided agricultural courses, but these were followed by only 23

per cent of the bovs on their rolls notwithstanding the fact that in the secondary departments of smaller district high schools the subject is compulsory. The period covered is precisely that in which land subdivision providing opportunities for men to get on the land, except tor returned soldiers in its earlier years has been most in abeyance. The new Government’s Land Bill and land purchases can be expected to do far more to ensure a right division of population between the towns and the country, from which cometh our strength, than any changes that can be made in education.—Dunedin “Star.”