INTERESTING TALK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 70, 22 August 1947, Page 4

INTERESTING TALK

PARENT-TEACHER ASSN. LIFE CYCLE OF. RAINBOW ' TROUT The social evening arranged for Monday night provided an interesting and enjoyable time for the parents, teachers and friends present. The guest speaker, Mr K. Francis, told the story of the life cycle of the Rainbow trout as it applies to Lake Taupo and illustrated his talk by drawings.

For the first two years of its life, he said, the Rainbow trout did not travel very much but after two years it left the river and went to the lake. In the third year of its life it grew rapidly but not until the winter time "did it feel the urge to travel. Leaving the lake it went upstream to the spawning beds, usually choosing a time when the river was in flood. About 2,500 eggs were shed in the gravel spawning bed but quite a large percentage of the eggs were washed downstream and lost. The eggs were deposited over a period of hours and fertilised by the male fish. By this time the fish very often had fins tattered from digging in the gravel or had some of the tail torn away with battling upstream. It soon returned to the lake, usually going down on the flood again.

Mr Francis then explained the work of the Hatchery Manager and his assistants in the important work of trying to improve our trout fishing to attract the tourist traffic. Screening of Film So that parents could see some of the educational films which are being shown at the school, a film about Aphids that had been used for the Agriculture Class was shown, also a film about Crude Oil that had been used for a Science Class. The chairman, Rev. H. M. Bell, reported that the full amount loaned by Mrs H. D. Wilson to enable the association to purchase the projector for the school had now .been repaid. Staff Shortages Mr Hubbard spoke about 'the serious position that the schools were faced with on account of shortage of staff. This shortage would be accentuated within the next few years because of the large number of five-year-olds who would need to be provided for. For this reason the Education Board was anxious to get recruits for the Teacher Training College but it was 1 difficult to attract young people to take up the teaching profession when they were likely to have difficulty in obtaining board. Married teachers were unable to accept advancement because of their inability to secure a house. Mr Hubbard mentioned that recently teachers had been unable to get board in Whakatane and that high grade' teachers had had to decline to accept appointments to this town due to the housing shortage. Petition to Board With the idea of meeting these difficulties in a practical way a petition had been prepared to send to the Education Board asking that any disused school or other suitable building be rererected as a Hostel or series of flats or that a number of State houses be made permanently available, for school teachers.

Mr J. W. Wilson, in supporting the petition, also mentioned the difficulty that the School Committee had had in finding, accommodation for teachers and the representations that the committee had already made to the Education Board.

Rev. H. M. Bell added an appeal to anyone with a room available to be of service by providing a home for one of the teachers.