THE WESLEY COLLEGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19744, 17 September 1927, Page 8

THE WESLEY COLLEGE.

PAERATA FABM SCHOOL.

AN ELASTIC CURRICULUM.

INTER-RACIAL EDUCATION. JJ/IDE EXTENT OF THE WORK. Built on an eminence, its dull red and tK-hre-coloured brick walls contrasting -with the green pasture, Wesley College, •Paerata, commands a vista of agricultural development effected in the education of the scholars it houses. L-nder its roofs English, Maori and South Sea Island boys are educated, and in the iield thcv are taught fanning, side by side, on terms of perfect equality and ;with the happiest results. Wesley College had its genesis through tme of the first grants made by the Goviernment of Sir George Grey to the \\ eslevan Mission. A start was made with r small number of native youths at Grafton Road in 1845, but it was a pro- , vision of tho grants that farming should be included in the curriculum. Soon, therefore, operations were transferred to. the Three Kings. Later grants made the benefits potentially available to Europeans as well as j (Maoris, and in 1911 an amendment of the Act made possible a bolder policy. Peeking a site permitting expansion, the board of management acquired the Paexata property of 680 acres in 1914, and in 1920 the first block of buildings was erected. Scholars of Three Races. Expansion has continued steadily ever since, until to-day there are 120 pupils, including 27 Maoris and several Islanders, a tutorial staff of seven, and as many farm instructors. The institution - is under the supervision of Mr. R. park, tho principal. Although a largo amount of money collected by the Methodist Church has been devoted to the. purposes of the college, it is undenominational. Its portals are open to the children of parents who tit her wise would bo unable to bear the expense of secondary education at a boarding establishment. Here tho annual charge for a pupil is about half the average at such an institution, but the grammar course—from Standard IV. to matriculation—is second to none. While that is paramount, the land Sense is inculcated, and practical training in farming afforded, under ideal conditions, on a property purposely selected as second-class land in order to give a true average basis of operations. Each boy spends one full day a week in the field —the rest, except for Sunday and the usual recreation periods and halfday, in the classroom. Most popular of all the farming classes is instruction in dairying and a pedigree herd of 100 Holsteins is milked by the iads, by hand and machines. They separate, operate the cream cooler in the ! well-equipped milking shed, conduct ordinary tests, and are thoroughly cognisant with the significance of C.O.R. testing, which reveals in some of the finer animals on the farm the amazing production possible from breeding from the irest producing strains. Animals on the Farm. Berkshire and Tamworth pigs are the media of instruction in swine husbandry, and Black Orpingtons in poultry-keep-ing. A flock of Romney-Lincoln sheep ■and a stud flock of Southdowns are the :entre of the pastoral activities. Those essentials of modern farming—topdressing and balanced pasture control—are here taught thoroughly. Every acre of

the property, which lias been almost com- « pletely reconditioned from the, stage of reversion to secondary growth which it had reached when taken over by the trust, is top-dressed every year. There is yet k small area being " broken in," capital being made of the process as an example of how deterioration should be combated.

In hillside silos excavated by the boys is stored grass ensilage, chiefly for use as adventitious fodder in the dry summer. Some 100 tons of hay are made each year for winter feed, and fattening and carryover crops such as mangels, swedes and oats are grown, the students driving the plough tractor, here, as everywhere, sharing in all departments of farm activity. The Koster of Duty. On the plan of Flock House, Patmerston North, a roster of duty is kept?, to ensure that every boy lias his turn at every implement and duty. • About the college buildings themselves are an orchard, now in bloom and being sprayed, and experimental garden plots. In the four-stand shearing shed the | lads learn to handle the machines. There J is something arresting, and denoting broad vision, in the idea of young New Zealanders sharing tasks with Maori youths and the dark-skinned Solomon Islands &n<3 Tongan boys. Of the last-named, several sre the sons of the highest chiefs in 'J onga, one being the son of the Tongan Minister of Justice, while another's father is I origan Minister of Lands. Most picturesque figure of all is Gina, a smiling >oung lougan, physically and nienfallv endowed above the average, and the darkest of them all." Most of these South Sea islanders are being trained for civil service positions in their native lands. In the case of i longa, now importing its mutton from ! New Zealand, there may be the means of I founding small flocks and cattle j herds to supply local meat requirements. I Afforestation has its part in the Wesley I College curriculum, perhaps the most j elastic south of the Line, and many j robust young plantations testify to what I has been done it: this form of provision j for the future. healthier lot of lads it would he im- j possible to imagine. Apart from their j weekly farm duty there is everv facility ! for recreation. On the slope of a lr.il j fionted by the college buddings is a Rugby j field, and below it an infant nine-holes i golt course, as yet unbunkered and lack- j ins; anything pretentious in the way ot ! te<>:; and greens. Divided by lawns, each handsome block j nf buildings, from the well-equipped cot- j tage hospital* to airy well-lighted class- ! rooms and laboratory, represents the latesi j in educational architecture. The institu- j t:on is a worthy testimonial to the broad ; vision o? one of >'ew Zealand's early Gov- j etnments, and to the. contribution of Methodism to undenominational and inter- ' racial education.