W.E.A. CLASS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 September 1924, Page 9

W.E.A. CLASS.

The W.E.A. class was well attended last evening. Professor Hunter was present and made a few remarks hearing upon the welfare of the classes at a meeting of the Committee held prior to the lecture. Some helpful infoimation was given relative to the movement, and suggestions were made with a view to placing the classes on a permanent footing and making them part of the life of the town. He urged that the class for fiext year should be organised earlier so that a syllabus could be issued containing a skeleton of each lecture. It was usual, he said, to, have a course extending over three years on one subject, and he thought that what ever subject is selected it should be treated in such a way that more than a- year’s course would not be 1 absolutely necessary in order that the students '.would receive adequate benefits. Subjects related to each other could be taken in successive years, and so dealt witli that either would constitute a complete course, though greater benefits would be derived by taking the whole of, say, three subjects. He urged that some means should be adopted for interesting the leading people of the town in the classes, and suggested the formation of a- committee that would be as a sponsor and help to widen the interest. Another suggestion was that it would be a good idea to have a chairman of each meeting, business or professional people, acting in turn He thought it only right that local bodies should assist the class by donati'Qn, and expressed his approval of representations being made, as already decided, with this end in view. Similar help w as given in other towns and cities. There was, said the professor, a. certain amount of misapprehension about the classes, and during his stay in Taranaki he had found it necessary, to correct many erroneous .statements. They had to remember that economics was a science which dealt with facts, and if the tiuth was unpalatable to soine they should not, for that reason, fail to teach it. Means for interesting the fanners Avere discussed, and Professor Hunter said that an agricultural expert' who had recently ar-i rived in the country Avould no doubt be visiting Taranaki, but Avhen he could not say. The occasion of his visit could be used in pressing the claims of the W.E.A; Professor Hunter further said that in order to pioserve interest in the- classes it was intended to have lectures from time to time by university professors to which the public would be invited.