H.—29b

15

REPORT ON REQUIREMENTS AT RUAKURA FARM OF INSTRUCTION FOR THE TRAINING OF STUDENTS. (Mr. W. S. La Trobe, Superintendent of Technical Education.) 1. Present Accommodation. —(a.) A large class-room holding about forty pupils (this room is not always available in the evenings) ; (b) a small dining-room which just holds the present thirty-eight pupils ; (c) a small recreation-room adjoining the dining-room. (Any further increase in numbers will make it necessary to use this room as an annex to the dining-room.) 2. Numbers to be accommodated. —The sleeping-quarters and dining-room with annex will take about fifty pupils. In addition it would be possible to utilize the homestead for fifteen to twenty more if seperate quarters were provided for the Farm Manager. The farm at present provides work of more or less suitable character for thirty-eight pupils for half their time. It could probably provide quite satisfactory practical training for sixty pupils working one-third time, or even more if a larger proportion of the farm work were done by the boys. I think we must expect that some sixty pupils at least will attend when the scheme is in full swing, and that two weeks out of three might well be devoted to theory, observation, and laboratorywork. This would mean that two classes of twenty each would be engaged during the daytime in the class-room and laboratory, while in the evening three such groups would have to be provided for. 3. Accommodation for Sirty Pupils. —These could be reasonably well provided for in two classrooms in addition to the dining-room and annex, though it would be a considerable help to have also a library for reference and study available day or evening for any pupils desiring to work up special points or subjects. Ido not think any room in the homestead would serve for a library, even if a portion of the pupils were housed there, since the library should be available for the boys at any time during the day as well as at nights. In addition to two class-rooms and a library there should certainly be a laboratory for chemistry mainly, which could, however, be used for other subjects on occasions. Two teachers with the assistance of the specialists on the farm should be able to take care of sixty pupils, and in so doing they would probably be working at maximum teaching efficiency for this type of student. 4. Defects of the Present Accommodation : — (a.) There is no laboratory. (b.) There is one class-room too few, and the class-room in use is not always available when most needed —viz., at night. (c.) There is no suitable room for use as a library. (d.) There is additional accommodation not fully utilized at the homestead, but there would be considerable difficulty in remodelling it for class-room and laboratory purposes, and the result could never be so serviceable as rooms specially built in juxtaposition to the present school-buildings, 5. Consequences of the Defects of Present Accommodation. —The lack of proper class-room and laboratory accommodation very seriously handicaps the efforts of both masters and pupils. (a.) Since no practical laboratory work can be done, a considerable part of the theory, and not the least important, is " in the air." (6.) Class-work has to be cut down and lecture work substituted, although the pupils are too young and too inexperienced to be able to get full value out of lectures, and do need considerable class-work and preparation under the eye of the teacher. (c.) There is no room regularly available for the group of pupils at work in the fields to do home-work, say, three evenings weekly, and so maintain the essential condition of continuity in theory work. The masters state that a complete break every other week plays havoc with the indoor studies —the boys losing time in picking up the threads after a week off. (d.) It is difficult under present conditions to hold the boys in the evenings, and to be certain that they are kept healthily occupied. I need not emphasize the danger of such a condition in a boarding-school. 6. Recommendations. —In view of the above considerations, I am strongly of opinion that the school cannot become a well-organized and efficient institution until the necessary facilities are provided. I would therefore urge that the Government be recommended to provide as soon as possible the following additional rooms : (a) Chemical laboratory —36 ft. by 24 ft. by 13 ft. high ; (b) demonstration class-room —30 ft. by 24 ft, by 13 ft high ; (c) preparation-room —18 ft. by 14 ft. by 13 ft high. Such accommodation is usually provided for every high school and technical high school, and I believe it is even more necessary in a farm school. The approximate cost of buildings, fittings, and furniture, apparatus and material, would be about £2,100, if a simple form of construction and simple fittings were chosen.