Senior Agricultural School at Fencourt

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6175, 19 March 1948, Page 5

Senior Agricultural School at Fencourt

SCHEME TO PROCEED RESULTS OF CONFERENCE . An announcement has been made by the Auckland Education Board that after protracted negotiations it was very likely that a senior agricultural school would be established in the Waikato. A conference of representatives of the board, representatives of the Education Department and agriculture experts was held in Wellington on March 10 and their recommendations are to be submitted to Cabinet by the Director of Education, Dr. C. E. Beeby, who presided at the conference. He hopes to put the matter before the Government before his departure overseas. As far as was within the powers of the conference, it recommended that the property at Fencourt, near Cambridge, which is the proposed site for the agricultural school, be procured at the earliest opportunity. The" conference entirely supported the brochure issued by the Auckland Education Board. The special committee representing the board was asked that on its return to Auckland it send minor adjustments and recommendations to enable Dr. Beeby to place the whole project before Cabinet, as he wished the matter to be attended to before his departure overseas. The primary object of the school is to provide ' practical, theoretical, cultural and recreational training for pupils who have had the pre-requisite two years’ post-primary schooling. It is hoped that the school will be able to provide short-term courses for adolescent pupils, along the lines of the present agricultural colleges. The training will be complete in itself, neither an introduction to the agricultural colleges nor a preparation for university degree courses, and will not provide an examination course.' The school, which will be wholly residential, will be the first of its type in New Zealand.