RURAL EDUCATIDN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1041, 2 February 1911, Page 8

RURAL EDUCATIDN.

SPEECH BY HON. G. FOWLDS. ASTRAY'OjS" WOOL PRICES. The Hon. George Fowlds, Jlinister for .Education, after opening the agricultural show at Levin yesterday, said thnt he ivas glad_ ,of an ojjportunity of speaking on tho subject of rural education. The work ■ wliich the A. and P. Association was doing was quite in line with , the work he had.to take charge of as Minister for Education. Tho association was doing educational work, and was also promoting agriculture. Ever since he had been Minister of Education he'had recognised that rural education was an important part of the work over which lie presided, and he had done' everything in his power to promote -it throughout the country. As they were aware, tho Department was not in a position to do much itself. The work : had been entrusted to the education boards, and the Minister's part was largely to authorise the work of the boards. .He was sorry to say that the Department liad not had as much encouragement as it should iave received.

Only of recent years'.had the importance of special rural education been fully appreciated. By courses of Nature study in the primary sohools 'and special inducements for the adoption of agricultural courses in district high schools which aro mainly rural in their environment, something has already been , done, but it must be admitted arrangements aro yet far from complete. Instructions in the elementary principles of agriculture, such as could properly be included in tho programme of primary schools, should bo .based on operations of the overy-day facts of rural life, on work'in tho school gardens, and oh a-system of simplo experiments appropriate to tho resources of ■the school. It was only by, placing be-, fore'the children's eyes the'phenomena to ,1)3 observed that they could be' taught to observe, and that the principles which were underlying the science of modern agriculture could be instilled into their minds. The primary school could not set out to teach agriculture any moro' than it could undertake to teach any other technical process. All tli.it was asked of the rural teacher was that he should .give his pupils . a taste for'agricultural matters. If the teacher enabled them to read in after life.a modern Iwok' ou agriculture with profit, or succeeded ir inspiring tlieni with, a . love of country life, so that they may prefer it to that . of towns and factories, the teacher liad done much, and he would do more if.lie convinced them of the fact that, agricul'ture besides being the most independent of all means.of livelihood,.was also'more remunerative than many other occupations to those who practised it witjji industry, intelligence and enlightenment. Most of the.pupils in our rural, schools iia'd but two sources of information—the

world around 'them and books.' In this matter Nature study was specially mentioned, and commended at length.

So far, the Department had. been trying to make agriculture a special feature in the district high schools. ■ Tha Palmerston North and the Waitaki High Schools were the- two which had dona most in this direction. Agricultural instructors had been disappointing, except regarding the wool-classing classes. "I believe," hn continued, "that the Dominion has got a result in Ihe increased pries of the wool clip which more than repays the- money which has been spent on wool-classing."