AGRICULTURE AIM

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5601, 5 April 1943, Page 2

AGRICULTURE AIM

NEED FOR DEMONSTRATION FARM HIGH SCHOOL CHAIRMAN’S VIEWS For the past twenty-five years prominent public men in Te Awamutu have been agitating for better facilities for applying science to farming methods, and have urged the Department of Agriculture to establish agricultural classes and an experimental farm. The matter has again been taken up by Mr G. D. Donaldson, chairman of the Te Awamutu High School Committee, who has issued the following memorandum for consideration at Friday’s meeting. In this he incorporates a remit sent to the Provincial Conference of the Farmers’ Union in 1918, republished in the Courier on March 26. Mr Donaldson stated:

“Recently I had occasion to refer back to the original minutes of committees set up to carry out consolidation of the country schools on Te Awamutu High School. As a country member of this committee, and one who took part in all the preliminary discussions -and meetings prior to consolidation, I would like to take this opportunity of referring to a subject that has been frequently raised in the past two years by farmers and parents of country children attending the District High School, i.e., how much education of an agricultural bias do our children receive?

At all the committee meetings prior to consolidation with representatives of the Education Department and Board, particular emphasis was given to the desire of the country districts that the new High School should have an agricultural bias, and official sanction and encouragement was given to this idea. The late chairman, Mr GB. Melrose, with the wide knowledge of agriculture and of the majority of farmers in this district, was a very strong advocate for the carrying out of these plans, and by special request, a headmaster was selected by the Board with qualifications in this direction. The committee up to date has had a big job to get the grounds in order, lay down courts, and provide all the amenities that a modern High School demands, and has been loyally helped by the headmaster in these objects.

The High School was established in May, 1939, and the headmaster has now had time to organise his school and formulate a policy in education, both physically and mentally, and in this direction has met with some success.

Now there is a further field open—to so train the High School children, especially those from country homes, to an agricututural bias. A stage has now been reached where the preliminary organisation has been practically completed and sufficient amenities provided. It should be the duty of future committees to insist on a wider agricultural education for these children. If the teaching staff is limited in this respect steps should be taken to secure teachers with the necessary qualifications.

The influence of a first-class agri-cultural-minded man is shown in a school such as Feilding High School. The present facilities in this district for proper agricultural instruction is a long way short of Feilding, but with the proper push from the farming community and the sympathy of the Education Department, which, I am convinced is already there, Te Awamutu District High School could have a small model farm with building plots and scientific and practical instruction equal to any High School in New Zealand.

It is obvious to any farmer or sen-sible-minded person that to encourage a large proportion of our country boys and girls to take up industrial work in the cities is only putting the cart before the horse. If, on the other hand, we retain our own boys and girls who are on the land, and supplement them with agricultural immigrants, in a few years’ time an enormous industrial outlook would be pro-, vided with money brought to New Zealand from overseas markets. It is our duty to our country and district to provide in our educational system the facilities to learn agriculture, and thus increase our production by more scientific methods and the better use of machinery. Recently production has fallen through various causes connected with the war economy, but few realise that it was not increasing nearly as fast as it should, even before the war. The future of this district depends on good and capable, educated farmers, and no greater memorial to the late G. B. Melrose could be devised than to establish a small farm at the High School. From this would go forth boys and girls ready to take their places in our community, better edu•cated than most of their parents, and adding to the home farm experience the scientific and practical knowledge gained in a progressive District High School with an agricultural bias. In a general discussion members were unanimous as to the value of a demonstration farm, and the matter is to be further pursued after the new committee is elected.