The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1884. "Learn a Trade"

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 71, 25 November 1884, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1884. "Learn a Trade"

Mn Murphy, the secretary of the , Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, lately x-ead a paper to the North Canterbury Educational Institute in which he set himself to teach the importance of placing boys at some useful trade, or better still, of making them farmers. A large proportion of young men are being brought up in this pioneer community as if they were to take part in the complex pursuits of old settled countries. The number of clerks, teachers, and lawyers among the rising generation is out of all proportion to probable requirements. Mr Murphy proposes to send these " half-educated " youths to the country, train them in the science of cultivating the soil, and so fit them for becoming agents in increasing the wealth of the colony, instead of condemning them to be practically useless superfluities and non-productive units in the community. He says that " reading about rural affairs, such as ploughing, sowing, and reaping, the natural history of farm animals, and the general work of the various seasons imparts in the youthful and plastic mind a knowledge of — and not unfrequently, a taste for — such things." This we consider a sound proposition, and it constitutes a strong plea for agriculture forming part of the public school curriculum, and of agricultural subjects being dealt with in periodical literature for family reading. Whatever may be the immediate causes, the temptation to working men to put their sons and daughters to what are stupidly called " genteel " employments, and to teach them to despise manual labor, appears to be irresistable. The consequence is that all of these kinds of employments are overcrowded and the salaries paid very small, while the demand for skilled or manual labor is continually increasing and the wages remain high and remunerative. Bearing " sickly-looking cigar-smoking degenerate youths" instead of the fine, manly, well - developed men founl among the artisan and labouring clas&es ; and sentimental, piano-play-ing, idle young women instead of domestic servants, who, during periods of employment, would be fitted, from the experience they would obtain, to become the wives of men of their own social position. The true dignity of labor has been forgotten apparently in this colony, from the higher rate of wages and improved standard of living as compared with the Old Country, There are plenty of opportunities now offered by the Government for young men to settle on a piece of virgin forest where they could earn an independent living with moderate hard work and make provision for passing " a green old age " in comfort and plenty. The lot of a clerk, or kook-keeper, pure and simple, is miserable compared with the bush settler. His pittance of a salary is barely sufficient to cloth him, let alone allowing him to 'make . any provision for the future, thus he can only look forward to a life of penury and distress. The contrast is striking and worthy of the consideration of all thoughtful parents. r :