WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 217, 8 June 1920, Page 6

WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

. COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT. That the university should extend tho influejicc of. itß teaching beyond its own four walls. i» a steadilv-growimr demand among many. Bectionß of the community, and by none more so than by the country centres which arc relatively cut off from any cultural university influences except duch as return to them with the professional element- which it is at preaent the main function of the -university to train. Mr. D. J. R. Seymour hna just return?'! from an orcanifiinir visit on behalf of tho W.E.A. to Taranaki. He states thatmany country centres are most anxious to embark upon W.E.A. classes. In New Plymouth the trades unions had npplicd for a class in Economics, and in Hawera the Farmers' Union was laying plans for classes for the study of economic and social questions. In St-ralford, the members of a men's club had interested themselves in W.E.A. classes, and in Wamranul fifteen men from the Railway Workshops were w.iiting to undertake a class in Economics In New Plymouth the Hon. C. J. Parr had attended the inauiiiral meeting, and had 1 warmly commended the work. Ho particularly strerad the noint that education does not end at- school. The neoplu of Enrian'd had discovered by themselves that this was so. and New Zealand wni r.lso'awekening to the. necessity for adult education. In regard t.o the university. Mr. Parr stated that there wasr not such a great nulf between it- and the common peonle, and instanced 1-lie case of. an Auckland W.E.A. class which had como ii-nder his notice, where the rank and file in the clas 1 ) met on common ground with a university professor for the promotion of tho ?o*la] and intellectual (rood of tho community. Mr. Soymour' ia leaving shortly for Nnnier, Hastings. Dannevirko, and Woodvillc. He Is then holdincr further publio meetings in Taranaki, and will return via the Wairarapa.