MINISTER OF EDUCATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20961, 26 February 1930, Page 10

MINISTER OF EDUCATION.

VISIT TO MASTERTON. (Per United Press Association.) MASTERTON, February 25. The Minister of Education (Mr H. Atmore), who is paying an official visit to Wairarapa, had a busy day in inspecting the various primary and secondary schools of the town and the immediate neighbourhood. The Minister addressed the. children at each school and also spoke at the luncheon of the Optimists’ Club and later at a' function given iii his honour by the Masterton Borough Council. Referring tb the Penrose grant- recently made by Cabinet, the Minister stated that he intended to establish other farm schools in New Zealand. He regarded the' Feeding High School as one of the most useful in the Dominion because it combined practical and cultural education. However; the establishment of these farm schools would not be overdone, but sufficient would be established to reinstate the self-respect and mate him feel a more important factor than he had been accounted hitherto in the economic life 'of th?L Dominion. • Referring to the effect of education on the unemployment question, the Minister gave his opinion that the present state of affairs was entirely due to neglect in reorganising the farmers’ real position in the economic sphere of things in New Zealand. Palliatives, though necessary, increased the./ root of the trouble, and unless a true remedy was found the time would come when it would be impossible to find employment through the .ordinary channels. The vote to. Penrose would* serve not . only to educate more farmers, but to gain better general recognition of the importance of farming, on which all other industries depended. Representations were made urging the necessity for the erection of a school in Eastern Masterton, a site for which had recently been purchased. . The Minister will leave for Eketahuna the morning.