SCHOOL GARDENS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 950, 4 February 1911, Page 2

SCHOOL GARDENS.

The Foxton school will receive £2 10s as a result of the school gardens competition. As stated in our last issue they tied with Cheltenham for second prize, and were also second for the best display of flowers in school gardens. Commenting on the above the Feilding Star says: —“We have again to congratulate the Colytou school upon securing first honours in the School Gardens Competition held under the auspices of the Feilding A. and P. Association. Last year Colyton secured first place with an aggregate of 173, and it will be seen that this year it has improved that position with a total of 184. Halcombe, which scored second place last year, has had to give way this time to four other schools, and Cheltenham has to be congratulated upon an improved position, dividing the honours with Foxton for second place. Particularly creditable are the wins of Colyton and Foxton, for in the case of the former the school is* under the direction of two ladies (Misses Shortall and Smith), who have shown astonishing enterprise and have met with a well-deserved reward. In Foxton’s case the garden is quite new, and Mr Jackson, who is in charge, may well feel delighted at the comments of the judges that the garden is ‘‘a credit to the Foxton district.” It is worthy of note in connection with this subject, that the Wanganui Education Board stands in a unique position in the encouragement of the cultivation of gardens in connection with the schools throughout its district, with the result that there are now about 150 schools that are imparting practical garden instruction to their students. The remarks of Messrs Lethbridge and Mayo upon the Colyton garden may be applied to the whole of the Board’s system, when the judges insert this note : “The scholars attending this school should never forget the training they must have received to have done such first-rate work.’’