The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1909. EDUCATION AND THE FARM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13903, 14 May 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1909. EDUCATION AND THE FARM.

The Melbourne " Argus " has laid the | people of. Australia, and of New Zealand also, under an obligation by drawing attention to a section of the huge report of the v British Royal Commission on the Poor Laws—" the biggest report ever issued by a- Royal Commission." This is a section dealing with the effect of the present system oi education upon the, general problem of industrial employment. Among the questions suggested to the '' Argus '' by the report, as pertinent to the circumstances of Australia, are these: — "Does our system of education increase our industrial difficulties? Is it in any degree responsible for the fact of unemployment ? Could it by any practicable means be so amended as to increase industrial efficiency, and so, in the only manner soundly possible, improve the position of the worker ?" The Commission's report asserts that the educational system of England does increase industrial inefficiency, and as the Australian system, and our own, very closely resemble that of England, the same consequence must be expected here. " We compel children," says the "Argus," "to attend school until the age of 14, or until they have been educated up to the requisite standard. But competency in reading, writing, and arithmetic to an inspector's satisfaction is all that is needed to secure a certificate that a child is sufficiently educated. The age of 14 attained, or that certificate earlier acquired, the child drifts unheeded into the readiest and generally the fullest channels of employment.' , The brightest children certainly have opportunities to proceed further; that is to say,,to the secondary schools and even to the University; but the rest leave the schools too young and entirely unequipped for industrial life." Tin's is equally true of New Zealand. The technical classes that have been provided are taken advantage of by but a very small minority of those who have left school, and the majority of the classes that are carried on have but a. remote relation to the industrial activities o£ the country. For this reason the proposal placed before the South Canterbury Board of Education the other' day that a competent instructor in agriculture should be appointed for the district, merits the fullest sympathy and assistance, agriculture principal industry of South Canterbury. For other important industries generally, the apprenticeship system probably meets the requirements of the case fairly well. And this suggests a method of increasing the efficiency of the farm worker. It is a common complaint among farmers thatHhey cannot get |

good all-round workmen, and the reason i'or this is not far to seek. The good all-round man is not born such; he : has 'to-he'taught his calling, a calling as varied in its demands as any that can be named; and if any large proportion of the present generation of farm hands is inefficient, the reason for this must be that they have not been taught. Now whilst it is within the range of possibility for an agricultural instructor to teach boys and youths a great deal about the scientific or theoretical side of farming, he cannot deal with the practical side of it at all, and ifc is on this- side that the farmer finds his men deficient. The remedy for this may lie in the application of the system of apprenticeship or of some modification of it, to farming. Farmers' sons generally become good farmers, capable workmen, because they are taught the how and the why of things in a sympathetic way, for their future benefit. The "boy" engaged at so much a week is given a boy's jobs to do, and as a rule he is taught no more than will enable him to do them. He may have, probably will have, to help a man.very frequently, but he may not be led to take any more interest in what the man is doing than will enable him to play his subordinate part. This state of things unfortunately is more likely to exist on the larger and better managed farms, which ought to be schools for the future farm hands. The observant and energetic lad will learn in spite of the absence of purposeful teaching, while the careless and duller lad- probably will not; the former would be likely to make a still more competent workman if given definite instruction, and taught how to do 'a man's work in his youth, when more teachable. "When a, farmer complains of the dearth of good men, he might be asked whether he had done anything towards ensuring a supply of good hands. There might be found here another subject for co-operative " crop " experiments, for it cannot be denied that one of the most important, if not the most important, '' crops '' that agriculture can, produce, is a. crop of capable practical farmers. .."'.-'