RURAL EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14132, 6 August 1909, Page 6

RURAL EDUCATION.

NTERESTING THE YOUNG.

REMARKS BY THE MINISTER. [BT TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

Wellington, Thursday. At the Agricultural Conference to-day, Mr. B. Pemberton (Canterbury) read a paper on rural education prepared by Mr. M. Murphy, of Christchurch. The Minister for Education (Hon. Geo. Fowlda) was present, and listened with interest to the reading of the paper.

Mr. Murphy's views were really an appeal that rudimentary agriculture should be a compulsory eubject in the State schools. He quoted from the report of the English Poor Law Commission, which found that the present education system was literary and diffuse in character, and should be more practical. It was not in the interests of the country to produce by a system of education a dielike for manual work and a taste for clerical and for intermittent work, when such a vast majority of

those so educated must maintain themselves by manual labour. "If that indictment of the educational system was true for Great Britain, how much greater folly was it for an agricultural and pastoral community like ours to give all children an education which would tend to fit them for clerical work and wean them from country life." The concluding portion of the paper contained the following motion: " That it be a recommendation to the Education Department that rudimentary agriculture be a compulsory subject in the curriculum of primary schools." Mr. J. G. Wilson spoke strongly of the necessity for doing something practical in the direction indicated in the paper. He showed what the Manawatu A. and P.

Association is doing to foster an interest in agriculture. Mr. Baylis, supervisor of experimental farms in the North Island, suggested that the school children might bo taught seed selection as a beginning.

Mr. Alexander, principal of Lincoln College, said that education nowadays, *to be of any use, had to be made attractive. It was quite impossible to teach horticulture or agriculture in a schoolroom. He gave particulars of what had been done in England for the advancement of agricultural education. The aim and object w&j to stimulate a desire in the child for further knowledge. A person's education was not. completed when he left college, he had to fit himself for his surroundings and circumstances in after life.

The Minister for Education said he

looked upon agricultural and pastoral societies as co-workers with him in the advancement of education. He was surprised that so much store was placed on compulsion. His reading of history did not lead, him to believe that compulsion was the best method to apply. In most of the primary schools something was being done for rural education. The syllabus was so designed that the teacher would have some say in the framing of the classes. The main thing that the teacher could do, so far as the primary schools were concerned, was to interest the child in plant life and to get the powers of observation developed. The attendance at- the agricultural classes under the Education Boards was not at all satisfactory on the part of those who might be expected* to benefit. In his opinion, the advance made in rural education in New Zealand in the last five years was marvellous. The motion was passed.