SOLDIERS AT SCHOOL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12707, 31 July 1919, Page 7

SOLDIERS AT SCHOOL.

NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. (From a Lady Correspondent.) LONDON, June 13.'. The_ story everywhere is a gradual depletion of strength in the various centres of the N.Z.E.F. activities, and with it the sphere of action of the Education becomes circumscribed. There's the camp at Brocton, for instance, I closed in the middle of May ; that of !»uttoiv.Uoldfield has just shut down; •and Walton is about to be evacuated, buch patients as cannot be moved far are to be transferred from Mount Felix to Ootlands, near by. Codford is to be"evacuated at the end of this month, and there will then remain only Sling Camp. In these circumstances educational, work-is carried onunder difficulties, but it does go on 'and'" even towards the end of a camp's "existonce interest has been kept" up to an extraordinary degree, as witness the fact that at Sutton Ooldfield the attendance at tbe economics class rose to .200 .in the beginning of May. mat is going strong is the study 0 f agriculture, and as this i s the season S 9 ?S'S ier ? u ra«Ms of the M.6.Xi.j<. are afield seeing; England, and smiling mayhap at an English farmer's idea of a drought. For to the naked eye, JSnghsh fields and meadows looked green and lush enough, and the dust was only oppressive near great motorine high roads, where the bad condition of the roads—a legacy ft-bra' war time neglecfc-haa made the dust nuisance worse than it has ever been since heavy motor traffic first churned up our road surfaces- . Up to date the work done in agriculture in visiting various places has been;—

ludustrial tours and visits, varying in length from one to ten days, were undertaken in commerce (business methods and organisation, leather and boot-mak-ing, printing and paper trades, post and telegraph, textile trade exhibition, economics. Mint maket, etc.) by five offices and 130 men, in May last. Oatlands continues its work for disabled, where the chief classes, with their attendances, are as follow: Commercial section . .50 Engineering . . ... , 35 Wool-classing . . , ,31 Bootniaking . . .39 Poultry farming .'' . 29 Wood-work . . ! ~S Tho students, who have been through the classes at Oatlands, and then placed with outside firms for further training, continue to make good progress, and are invariably the subject of satisfactory reports from the firms with whom thev aro placed. The very satisfactory report has to be placed on record'that up to tho end of May 600 members of the N.Z.E.F. had availed themselves of the facilities given them for attending technical and other institutions for higher education. The kind of training they obtained ranged from aeronautics to" plumbing. The matriculation students are at the moment sitting for examination.

• & eai i n occurred a few months ago in .England of Mr Alexander Binning Monro, an old resident of Marlborough. The late Mr Monro •was the second son of -Mr Alexander Binning Monro, of " Auchenbowie," Stirling, Scotland and a nephew of th© lato Sir David Monro, one of the early Nelson settlers. Mr" Monro was horn in 1838. and came to New Zealand in the ship Cresswell. After he left Marlborough he lil«ed in Nelson, and later in New Plymouth ' until he Went to England'. Up to the very last he maintained 1 a keen interest 'inNfir Zealand, and his memory of the old days was most vivid.

Other __ , Officers, iwo 'wool sales (2 days) 6 ranks 46 11 live stoek Sales (from 1 to 4) 3 190 2 bee-farming (2) ,1 23 4 poultrv (2) . 0 39 13 1 fruit (2) . 0 1 seed testing (1) n ' 63 63 Glasgow show (2) . 5 Belfast show (3) . 0 69