MAKING GOOD FARMERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 197, 28 January 1915, Page 3

MAKING GOOD FARMERS.

GENEROUS AND PRACTICAL ! ASSISTANCE. At the Education Board; meeting yesterday, Messrs Roy and Nicholson, writing on behalf of Mx [Frederick Old, of Sentry' Hill, confirmed -their, client's verbal offer ;to give the. Board a lease of acres at Fitzroy, rent free, for seven years, for the use of the Board's technical classes in agriculture. In the course of the letter, they stated that Mr Old, who had been a farmer all his life in the Taranaki provincial district, realised that hitherto tin; farmer had to be his own teacher and had to acquire his own farming knowledge by hard experience, often at useless cost and loss of valuable time. In giving this lease j Mr Old desired to show his practical sympathy with and assistance to the! young men who wished to avail them- j selves of the benefits of agricultural classed now authorised by the technical education system and thereby qualify themselves to become good farmers They also submitted a memo, giving particulars of the land and the conditions of the proposed lease. The Board discussed the conditions and referred the lease to a committee consisting of the chairman and Mr Bradbury with power to act. Members of the Board, accompanied by the new Director of Technical Education and Mr H. G. Sergei the newlyappointed Technical College agricultural instructor, visited the site and expressed themselves as highly delighted with it for tKe purpose. The land is eminently suited for the work, some of it being level, some, undulating and some hilly, thereby giving scope for ■variety of 'work. Members generally were of opinion that Mr Old was to be complimented for the public spiritecbiess he had shown in making such a generous donation.