THE FARMER'S SON.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1915, Page 5

THE FARMER'S SON.

SCHEME FOR HIS TRAINING. GOVERNMENT DAIRY FARMS. An excellent insight into the worfc which U being done in North Taranakl to train boys to become fanners w«J» provided for the Minister for Education (the Hon. J. A. Hanan), at Stratford on Friday, when a visit was paid to the agricultural plot. After the Miniiter had been shown around by Mr. Ellis (the expert) an interesting discussion was held by those present on the worlo done. Mr. Ellis said he was quite certain that the education of children in agriculture) should commence nt the primary schools. The Minister said be had nothing to do with the man on the land, but ha wanted to draw up a scheme which would give an education in farming to the sons of the men on the land. He wanted to see if the (.iovernment could do more in teaching agriculture. Mr, Ellis said the aim wag fir«t to teach children the life history of the plants which they grew, and they were shown the value of plants and how they could be put into pounds, shillings, and pence. For instance, they demonstrated to the pupils the most profitable mangel to lie grown and the best method of manuring, while the information gathered from experiments was distributed amongst the men on the land. The people in this district were coming to realise the importance of intensive agriculture and the experts were teaching them what could be most successfully grown on their soil. In most of the schools a student in agriculture began his work in the fourth standard, and there they received a regular course of instruction both inside and outside. There was a gap between the work in the primary school and the period for the attainment of the degree of Bachelor of Agriculture. The boy who follows a profession could go from the primary school right to the university, but the boy who went in for farming could not do this.

The Minister: That is the point. There is no doubt that New Zealand is going to be a country of small farms, and we must have plenty of farmers. Mr. Ellis suggested that encouragement should be given to boys by the establishment of scholarships in farming, and the agricultural colleges should ba employed solely for training experts. Mr. Tyrer (headmaster of the Stret« ford District High School), said that New Zealand was crying out for a Government dairy farm, and it should be established in a dairying district like Tarenaki.

The Minister asked what department it was considered the education of the farmer should be under—the Agricultural Department or the Education Department ?

Mr Ellis thought it should be in the hands of the education authorities. If a dairying school could be established he considered it would be a first-rate institution, and he thought it might be administered by the joint control of the Agricultural Department and the Education Department. Mr. R. Masters thought an experimental dairy farm should be established somewhere in that district. The uaki Education Board could well control it. Mr. .T. J!. Iline. M.P., said that two such farms should be established in, Taranaki—one in north, and the other ill the south.

The Minister, in bringing the discussion to it close, said the principal industry of Now Zealand was farming, and he wanted to introduce a scheme by which the farmer could be trained. He wanted to work in the direction of fixing on a -suitable national project. Some svheme of training should be introduced which would enable the farmer to hold his own with farmers in other countries. In other parts of the world farmers were doing this, and New Zealand farmers would have tc be equipped so that they could compete successfully with other countries.