LOVE THE LAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6704, 30 December 1908, Page 3

LOVE THE LAND

'SIR HORACE PLUNKET'S REMEDY. NATURE STUDY. Sir Horace Plunked, who has had a Ion"- experience of the hard work ot I, v Tii* r to improve the organisation ot Indmagrieulture, thinks Unit something must be done to make a larger proporiiou of the nopulation like? the land as well as flee profit: in it. ‘‘There are two human attributes,” he fays, “to which the city appeals irresistibly, quite apart f i pm tin- l,eiler opportunity it nliords ot material advancement —the gregarious instinct and the love of excitement. Improved locomotion and means for communicating thought from eye to cyo and ear to cur, the organisation of social functions in rural centres, and lectures illustrated by tho moving life of the 'kineinatograph will all help. But their influence may be centripetal with tome, centrifugal with others. No conceivable devices by \yhich the country may gain -some share’of the enjoyment of the town can destroy the lure of the city.. The farmer’s calling is one of constant and unremitting toil. No process of evolution will evolve a cow which will consent to do without milking on Sunday. A modest standard of comfort, devoid of all expensive luxuries, must continue to be the lot of tho tillers of the soil/’ The one way to set off the townward tendency would bo to revolutionise the mental outlook of the rural population, and concentrate it upon the oxien country. But how’ is this to be done? Sir Horace Plunkett confesses that, aftoiall his study of the Irish peasant, of the Canadian farmer, and of the life of the American pastoral industry (in which he was personally engaged for some years), ho cannot suggest the course which should be tried. All he can do is to indicate the need as ho sees it. “Wo want/’ he states, “two changes in iho bucolic mind. The physical environment of the farmer is replete with interest to the followers of almost every branch of natural science. . That interest must be communicated to the agricultural classes according to their capabilities, ‘Nature study/ I believe, is tho latest term of the pedagogues for the revelation of tho simple natural processes, but to make those processes interesting to tho child you must first make them interesting to tho teacher. The second change iu the outlook relates to the spiritual rather than to the utilitarian side of education. Somehow or other, that intimacy With, and affection for, nature to -which Wordsworth has given the highest expression must be engendered in the mind of tho rural youth. In this way only will tho countryman come to realise tho beauty of life about him, as through the teaching of science he will come to realise its truth/*