HIGH SCHOOL FARM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 251, 4 August 1937, Page 4

HIGH SCHOOL FARM.

GREATER CO-OPERATION DESIRED. ■STATEMENT BY MR HERRING. Referring to the discussion at the Ashburton High School Board meeting on Monday in regard to the use of the High School farm by pupils of both secondary schools in Ashburton, Mr H. E. Herring, M.P., made the following statement to a “Guardian” reporter this morning:— “The Department wrote, by instruction from the Minister of Education, asking both principals to collaborate in preparation of an agricultural course designed to utilise fully all the facilities of both schools, and shared without let or hindrance by the agricultural students of both schools. “With this view, propounded by myself I admit, the Minister (see his remarks as quoted in Mqnday’s ‘ Guardian,’ made on the occasion of making the £615 grant for buildings) and his departmental chiefs fully concurred. Indeed, the latter elaborated upon my suggestions in the direction that both instructors should equitably share in the management of the farm. “Now, the letter is not to the board, and this seems to give umbrage, but is by way of an instruction to the principals, and naturally, therefore, addressed to them. Would the High School Board wish to have an instruction to prepare a course of teaching in arithmetic or history referred to it? Incidentally this letter is now over three weeks old, and that has its serious side, too. The other side is provided by the spectacle of the High School. Board giving assurance that the Technical School lads were, and always have been, welcome on the farm at any time. “The actual fact is that verbal statements have been made from time to time to this effect; but let me say, as one who knows, it was a long and difficult job to get a written and official communication of this tenor from the High School Board to the Technical School principal; and this sort of communication is the only one regarded as valid by responsible people and one they would act upon. “The occasional invitations —what were they? Studies of a gyrotiller and close-up views of sheep. Are these things to be regarded as part and parcel of a wholehearted co-operation and considered plan of agricultural education ? “Nothing short of full employment at actual farm operations for at least one day a week, and perhaps more, can legitimately be regarded as adequate. When this is provided in the joint plan envisaged, and the approval of the Department obtained (and nothing but a very full interchange will get this), the High School Board may be approached for permission to use the farm that belongs to the nation, and for which they are merely trustees, and upon which they spend funds provided by the State. “We will then be within measurable distance of a realisation of the aim expressed by Mr Fraser, ‘ that the farm will serve a useful purpose in promoting a sound knowledge of agricultural practice among the young people of Mid-Canterbury. ’ ”