“THE VILLAGE COLLEGE”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20828, 21 September 1929, Page 12

“THE VILLAGE COLLEGE”

We publish this morning a letter in which" Mr. James' Taylor submits a proposal that New Zealand should essay the practical solution of unemployment, by/the adoption of a fusion of two types of agricultural education that are in existence,—the one in Cambridgeshire, England, and the other at. Flock House, New Zealand, Our correspondent believes that wo can combat 'the drif t to' the towns and turn the minds of many of our boys and girls to a rural life, and that this can be done by means that would include an adaptation’ arid extension of the successful Flock House scheme. Why is ; that scheme not extended, and why are its benefits hot offered'to-the native-born? If boys arid girls quite new to New Zealand conditions can be made both efficient in and desirous of rural life—some of them being said to be already on the way to independence,— after a course of practical training followed by a period of greater experience under employers, then surely those' born in this country would at least do equally as well. The account which Mr Taylor gives- of the Village College in Cambridgeshire is full of interest and shows what determination can accomplish. There is authority, moreover,-for the statement that Mr Morris, the director of the scheme in Cambridge, is so enamoured of its potentialities that he is moving for the establishment of five other colleges. The success that has been achieved under his direction was the subject of a most laudatory article in a recent number of the Nineteenth Century. The course of the college at Sawston, so far from being truly academic,' includes practical agricultural operations, veterinary science, farriery and all allied branches. The head of the college is not a mere academician, but a man with a love of country life. It has to be realised, of course, that the conditions in New Zealand are dissimilar from those in England, that there is a great deal more movement of population in this Dominion and that the tenris of employment are different. Our correspondent does not mention the Danish system. Denmark has the reputation of being one of the most highly civilised counh'ies in the world, and yet. Denmark has maintained.a closer connection between the soil and education than any other country, has done. In her rural districts she frees the children , half-time from ■ the primary schools in order that they may help .their elders in the work in the fields, and in the famous high schools the young Danes throng for several months in the year after having had three years’ experience in rural work. If a practical scheme can be evolved in .New Zealand that will tend to anchor population in the country, because its life interests, its moans of livelihood and its future prospects are linked to the land, it will be of ■immense value. Mr Taylor has performed a useful service in investigating the possibilities of the adaptation in New Zealand of the “village •college” plan and in explaining the , principle of the plan -in the- letter that appears "elsewhere 'iri'this’issu'e. 1 ‘ ,

THE COMPETITIONS SOCIETY. The Dunedin. Competitions Society deserves well, of the public. It repre-, sents an activity initiated in the interests of the community and carried on for upwards of twentyeight years with a steady and unflagging zeal that should command genuine admiration!. The purpose of -the society is educational. Its objective is the encouragement of the arts, and in the course of its existence it cannot but have exercised a-very considerable influence in encouraging boys and girls, and young men and women, to study and acquire proficiency in various cultural directions. Music and’ elocution were the principal features of the original competitions, and they retain their importance in those of the present day, although the society’s programmes now have a comprehensiveness that was scarcely dreamed of some years ago. The competitive gatherings are in themselves of interest and value bbth to the participants and to the audiences. They are productive of confidence on the part of the performers and they afford useful standards of comparison to all concerned. Moreover, students who enter for these competitions are stimulated to considerable preparatory effort, and derive an incentive to work which might* not easily !be imparted to them from any other source, Sud work should count for much. Beyond doubt, hundreds in our midst have found in these public Winpetitions ah urge to a measure of self-development in one desirable direction or another for which they have every reason to- be grateful. And they must realise that they owe a debt to the Competitions Society in this matter, whether success in appearing on the platform under its auspices was or was not enjoyed by them. ' It is of course a matter of common knowledge that in not a few cases these competitions have brought into prominence except tional talent and given its possessors opportunities which otherwise they might never • have secured. The Dunedin Competitions Society, the parent organisation of its kind in the Dominion, has a splendid record in the conduct of festivals;' representative of much- thought and spirited effort, such as that which was opened this week. Possibly the society is now' feeling the effect of competition in the great development of forms of , entertainment popular with a large section of the public. If so, that should not be. The Society’s instructive and attractive programmes and its well-planned festivals should make a powerful appeal to a very large proportion of. the people of Dunedin.