WOOL CLASSING.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1919, Page 4

WOOL CLASSING.

POPULAR SUBJECT FOR

SOLDIERS

Wellington, This Day

Among the great variety of subjects taught to soldiers by the Vocational and Educational Training Branch of the Defence Department, wool-classing seems to be one of the most popular. Some ol the soldiers are taking it up with a view to going into the wool business when their medical treatment is complete, and they can be discharged, but most of them secure this useful instruction with the idea of utilising knowledge when they take up land, under Government assistance, and become farmers.

Mr W. T. Hambly, a wool classing expert engaged by the Auckland Education Board, is making a tour of the North Island giving instruction to soldiers and civilians. He made a good start with a soldiers’ class at the hospital at Kamo springs. His Auckland class for soldiers is well attended, and at Rotorua the soldier pupils numbered iS. The same export man be will engaged to give a course of instruction to the patients at Trentham orthopaedic hospital. His intensive course, extending over a fortnight, enables the pupils to obtain a good grasp of the subject. In Christchurch a special instructor has been appointed to hold classes for soldiers only, and the use of a wool store owned by one of the large firms has been secured. As a large number of soldiers have expressed a desire to attend, this class will be well attended. At Hamuer, where instruction is given in farming generally, a wool shed is being built for the purpose of wool-sorting classes. The manager ol this farm, who was formerly an instructor at Eincoin College, * lias written a book on the subject of wool classing, which he hopes the Agricultural Department will publish. A simple text-book on this branch of farming knowledge would be greatly appreciated by many soldiers who are desirous of taking up farming. Instruction in wool classing for the soldier patients at Timaru is to be given at the Technical School, and here again a large class is anticipated. There is also a well attended class in the same subject at the Dunedin Technical School. The interest created by these classes among returned soldiers will, it is hoped, induce a number of them to settle on the laud. If they become farmers the knowledge gained will be of substantial value when they have wool sheds of their own.