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Southland Times, Issue 23693, 16 December 1938, Page 13

Mr W. S. Morrison, British Minister of Agriculture, speaking at the annual meeting in London of the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, said that in a country like England 90 per cent, of the people were engaged in urban activities, and there was always the danger that the old idea of the country might be overpowered by purely urban subjects and standards. Young farmers’ clubs fulfilled a real national purpose. Right at the bottom lay the ideal and ambition to work out and live a real rural form of life. The clubs had a great educational value which could not be ignored. Educationists were conscious of the gaps in rural education. When a boy left school it might be some time before he could attend a farming institute or agricultural college, or some other centre of learning; the young farmers’ clubs stepped in there and filled the breach. It was not difficult to realize how the young farmers’ clubs could help in bringing into closer co-ordination the farmer in the field and the wealth of scientific knowledge in the background.