"GET TO WORK."

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2821, 12 July 1916, Page 4

"GET TO WORK."

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

AN EXPERT'S SCHEME A WORKING BASIS SUGGESTED, The subject of rural education was dealt with from various points of view at the conference of the Council of Agriculture .yesterday. First of nil, the subject cropped up in the course of a report by the Board of Agriculture, 'The report said that the board had Riven the matter a. great deal of consideration, and had 'had the advantage of interviews with and reports from a number of experts froin other lands. A report had been dhuvn out anil adopted by tho board, and the Minister had been interviewed on the subject.: The interview was short and nothing had been done since'in connection with it, except that further representations had teen made to the present Minister. During the conference Mr. Brown, Director of the ■ Fields Division of'the Department of Agriculture, rend a paper on "Agricultural Improvement through Education and Experiment." Mr. Brown said that the Education- authorities appeared to be agreed that the education of the future in New Zealand must be more and more related to the environment of the pupil, and to the affairs of the people, and must concern itself far less -with remote things. In iiiglv schools the tendency was to. deal almost exclusively ( with, what was foreign to , the pupils' daily lives. Educators, had coruo to real iso. that there 1 could bo no education worthy of the name which did not use, as a means to its ends, the soils, the paddocks, physical features, the plants, and" the animals in the school environment, or which did not ooncerti itself intimately with tho social aspirations and business relationships of the people who lived,in the country. The One Practical Difficulty. 't'he one great practical difficulty was that the teachers had not been educated on thoso lines, and this disability would not; vanish till steps were taken to pro.l^- J tram the . rural teachers of the future. In agricultural districts the .inn should be to have all the education of a. kind that might be described as agricultural. Tho Department of Agriculture should strengthen its organisation for research, investigation, and experunent by rearranging and co-ordi-nating the machinery at present nt 'its disposal for that purpose. This the .Department was endeavouring to do. If practicable, the. Department, of Agriculture should arrange provision for a certain number of.teachers destined l for agricultural science .work ill'district high; schools to eimble tlieni to associate for a timo .with its specialities and to receive instruction and bias toward,agricultural science from tlieni. .Tho JMucafcion Department might extend its scholarship Provisions to one of the institutions of the Department of Agriculture in order that young men of adequate education might-, be available for training thereat, with a view to ''subsequent employment as field officers of the Agricultural Department, or as agricultural instructors under the Education Department. The officers of the Department should be brought together at one of the experimental stations for research work appropriate to. the needs of the 'Dominion as a whole, and to undertako the training of the men'whose subsequent, services as officers of the Department would enable an adequate expansion of the work to bo undertaken at the experimental stations themselves and throughout the various districts of the Dominion. In insisting on a heed of an adequately equipped and staffed base station, Mr. Broicn said ho did not overlook the fact, that district work, was very necessary. Present experimental work should not be allowed to lapse, but should be redirected, and the change should be in tho direction of reducing tho co-operative experiments carried out by farmers on their farms in favour of an extension of experimental sub-station.? of the type of .Ashburton, although. 1 perhaps.on'a smaller scale, and the establishment of experimental areas, associated w,itli the district high ?c2iools, or elsewhere in connection with" the local agricultural committee.

A Reasonable Working Basis. No considerable extension of experi; mental sub-stations should be undertaken until the special farms of the mental hospital? and .Education .Department had been exhausted. However, this should not obviate the necessity for other experimental areas. It had been suggested that schemes cf experiment on reasonable areas might be operated in association with high schools throughout the Dominion, and provided that satisfactory arrangements were made Tor the cultural work that seemed an excellent" idea. .Uo would suggest as u reasonable working basis that the school, supported by the local Agricultural Committee, or other responsible authority, should provide, at least ten acres and arrange lor the labour, tennis, and implements, and'that the Agricultural Department should formulato experimental schemes, provide seeds and manures, and subsidise the cost b.v payment of a fixed sum per acre, according to the class of work undertaken, when satisfied that tho work had' been properly carried oul\ Ho entered n plea for co-operation between Departments, and between them and local agricultural bodies, for th® furtherance, of their joint interests. The important thing was to get together and get to work, i The work could bo done, and done well, and to the complete satisfaction of the needs of the Dominion for years to come, with the 'opportunities that might be grasped by a little mutual arrangement and and without resort to any chimerical objective, such as a National Institute of Agriculture, which w;as receplly proposed at a Canterbury Philosophical Society meeting: With only one or two exceptions,, tile men of scientific standing in agriculture in New Zealand were in the service of the. Department of Agriculture, and, so far as he knew, when -oine of the arrangements which he had foreshadowed were brought into' operation, they would be more content to remain there.

Alter brief discussion, (lie conference adopted the following remit from Milling:—"That tit each high school there should be a small area of land snitablo for farm experimental work, and that n science innslci' should be attached to such school to supervise the agricultural education of the scholars and work in conjunction with the 'Department cf Agriculture." Northern Uaneiora introduced the 10Iloiving remit.:—"That the University of New Zealand should le urged to_ make agriculture a degree subject", Various opinions as to the present position were expressed, and the. remit was referred to (lie executive- for report.