MAP WITHOUT A FLAW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

MAP WITHOUT A FLAW.

SCHOOL CHILDREN'S WORK,

REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT.

School children of_ Nortbamptoushir# have put 535,000 acres of ihcir county, on the map. The work occupied just over a vcar, and a considerable- portion of it was done in their own time. Ones they got going, the juvenile cartographers could not be restrained. 1 Their task was to produce a land utilisation survey , map —the first in the country—and it is the authoritative opinion of Mr. E. E. Field, F.R.G.S,, that they , have produced a map that will survive the most'exacting test. Scholars from 1200 schools took part.Working in classes, or groups, they sur« veved 305 parishes, involving the examination of thousands of fields.. One of the earliest discoveries they made was that the 1901 ordnance survey maps were wrong in several particulars.. The necessary alterations were made on the spot, the pupils putting symbols on the traced copies of the maps'they; carried with thorn. Later,, back at school, they filled in shading :n water colours, light green for grassland, dark green for woods, brown for> cultivated land.

■ "Measurements were- taken and corrections made. Sometimes, as, for instance, when working on large parishes lika Bragstock, with 6000 odd acres, - and Brackley. with 3500 acres, it was necessary to stick at the work long after school hours. The scholars did it joyNow the children have the satisfaction of knowing that their enthusiasm has been so well spent that the minutest checking by the experts has failed to discover a flaw. They have a perfect land utilisation survey. Tlicv worked on six inch maps. 1 hejs were reduced to a. one inch scale, and finally printed for general use. , Evorv school which-look part in tn© survey" has been presented with sets of the map, which is published in' three sections. These are to bo hung in a prominent place, as a permanent record of a unique, achievement. None of tnt cartographers tras older than-14.