FEWER AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 12, 5 April 1927, Page 1

FEWER AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTORS

PROTESTS FROM TARANAKI Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day. Taranaki producers are greatly concerned about the proposal of the Government to reduce the number of agricultural instructors under the Education Department. When the matter came before the Taranaki Agricultural Society it was claimed that any reduction of the staff was wrong in principle and false economy, and must eventually prove costly to primary production in the Dominion. A resolution to that effect was carried, also emphasising the fact that the proposal to transfer an instructor from Taranaki would result in the of the progressive instruction in agriculture which these instructors have built up. The annual meeting of the South Taranaki branch of the New Zealand Teachers’ Institute, held at Eltham, also devoted some time to the question of agricultural instruction in schools, the most important point raised being whether it was creating bias towards the country for children. The opinion was expressed that in primary schools the object should not be to create bias in any direction, and it was generally agreed that in Taranaki instruction in agriculture was being carried out to give children a scientific knowledge. The meeting also considered the question as to whether the present system of travelling instructors in agricultural subjects was better than the suggested system of intensive training at training colleges. The meeting decided that it would be far better for present conditions to continue. The two or three years spent bv the average student at the training college was so full that there was little time to do much additional good work in the subject of agriculture.