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Mr. Newman : What percentage of the students become farmers ? Mr. Potts: We have turned out about 1,600 students, and up to nine years ago we had no means of getting accurate figures. But about nine years ago a journal was started which every month contains columns giving particulars of the whereabouts and employment of old boys. A register has been started and definite information has been gained, showing that about 75 per cent, of our boys are on properties of their own or occupying responsible positions as managers of properties or acting as teachers in this and other countries. (See page 52 of the journal for April.) A certain percentage of the lads fail to get their diploma, but a few years ago an entrance examination was inaugurated, and it has had the effect of getting a better class of student (i.e., of a better educational standard). It ensures a grounding in subjects of an academic nature that enables them to understand better the subjects we teach. We feel that it is our duty to give the boys a sound training in engineering, motor-ploughing, milking by machinery, &c. Machinery should be introduced at every point, and we feel that it is the duty of the College to make the students feel conversant with machinery in every phase of farm-life. Mr. Newman: Is the aim to produce farmers or teachers? Mr. Potts: Farmers. But every year some boys show that they are suitable for teaching purposes. A lad is found to be naturally endowed for the calling of a teacher. When we find a boy like that we get him as a teacher either for this College or elsewhere. Special instincts are necessary for teaching. In reply to a further question Mr. Potts stated that the boys were taught on commercial lines. The aim is, first, to develop character; second, the maintenance of a robust form of health; third, a strictly technical training, the object being a good sound knowledge theoretically of the principles underlying all the operations and manual dexterity in all operations of the farm and in the management of live-stock, so that when a boy leaves the College in possession of the diploma we have the utmost confidence in his capacity to earn his own living on the land or to occupy some responsible position in managing a property. We are particularly careful about the practical aspect of his training in this country, where we have continuous sunlight and the advantage of an immense area of land attached to the College, with a good type of draught horse, so that there is ample opportunity of turning out a lad thoroughly skilled in practical work. Mr. Neviman: When a boy arrives here, what is done with him first? That is, a boy who says he wants to be a farmer 1 Mr. Potts: He has to go into the first-year class, the indoor work of which is disclosed in the curriculum, and in which his primary education is directed towards the practical side of life. Take, for instance, his school geometry : it is utilized for the purpose of teaching him elementary surveying, in taking out the area of a paddock, the contents of a dam, or a stack; further, by its use he can apply himself to the taking of levels by means of the dumpy, and if he wants to do a little irrigation on his farm, instead of employing a licensed surveyor at three guineas a day, he does it himself. Then, again, farm book-keeping, which is an important essential in the commercial management of any farm, is taught; also elementary chemistry, elementary agricultural botany, and elementary agricultural entomology. Then, on the farm he is taught to milk in the first year, he is taught to handle horses, and later on the use of a single-furrow plough, the light implements, such as cultivators and scarifiers, and he is steadily introduced into the various sections of farm activities. The second year provides a higher education, both on the farm and indoors. The second and third years' work become more interesting, in so far as the principles laboriously inculcated in the first year are applied in various operations in the second and third, and become more attractive and intelligible. For instance, in agricultural chemistry, after going through the elementary course, the students are taught the analysis of dairy-products, such as the fat-content of milk, estimating the moisture in butter, the mechanical analysis of soils, soil physics, and the chemistry of manures as applied commercially; and towards the end of their full course the commercial aspect of the training is fully discussed. Mr. Newman thanked Mr. Potts for the information imparted. Information supplied by the Acting Under-Secretary and Director of Agriculture, Mr. George Valder, in Reply to Questions asked by Mr. Edward Newman, M.P., representing the Minister of Agriculture of New Zealand. In connection with Mr. Potts's remarks regarding expenditure on the Hawkesbury College I would refer you to the annual report of the Department, copies of which I am forwarding. On page 2 you will find a statement of the total expenditure of the College and experiment and demonstration farms, &c, up till the 30th June, 1912. As stated by Mr. Potts, however, it must be remembered that included in this are buildings which have long ago been pulled down, and in consequence of putting up temporary buildings and adding thereto it is difficult to get at the actual cost of the present buildings on the farm. With regard to the balance-sheet, it will be noted that under " Expenditure " are included items for permanent works and purchases of land, &c, and in order to get at the actual expenditure and revenue for the year these should be omitted. In connection with the College the extreme poorness of the soil makes a very great difference to the cost of working, as it means a heavy expenditure for manure, and often without a comparative result in consequence of the liability of the district to drought. Then, again, the College does an immense amount of educational work, not only for the resident students, but also for visitors, such as farmers attending the winter school, the teachers'

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