FARMERS' EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1916, Page 6

FARMERS' EDUCATION.

To the Editor. Sir,—As 1 am one of the farmer:? whom your Pungarehu correspondent refers to as having their education finished, speaking for myself and a lot of other absentees, I may state that my education starts at . r > o'clock in the morning and finishes at 8 at night, with about 1.5 minutes for breakfast and half an hour for dinner. When the days get longer our day will also stretch by at least two hours. So I imagine we have enough education without going to listen to a lecture on the subject. Your correspondent might think so, too, if he put in the same hours, but it is very probable he has no land at all; hence lie has plenty of time to go to lectures. As every farmer I know round about me is short-handed,'they regard it as a good joke to tell them to go in for turnip competitions when it will be very lucky if they can get time to put in any stock crop or otherwise. The sort of lecturers we need most just now are men with a little muscle ready to take their coats off and give a hand. I know some farmers who are trying to wrestle with five or six hundred acres of land and SO to 100 cows, having no help hut himself and a 12 or 14-year-old 1 Maori boy. Don't you think they need a lecture?—l am, etc., A PUNGAREHU COCKIE.