SCHOOL CLUB'S WORK

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1940, Page 2

SCHOOL CLUB'S WORK

JUDGING' ACTIVITIES SUGGESTED CHANGE The necessity for some alteration in the system in vogue hitherto for the judging of boys and girls' agricultural club competitions is referred to in a letter received by the Taranaki Education Board yesterday from Mr. F. C. Renyard, Superintendent of Technical Instruction. The itineraries of agricultural instructors would have to be rigorously checked when boys and girls' club activities were in full swing, wrote Mr. Renyard in stressing the need for conservation of petrol. The department, he said, did not desire to curtail the work, but it was necessary to emphasise cerlain restrictions in the use of cars. It might therefore be necessary to rely on local judges, without the assistance of the instructor. or to hold group judgings, as in calf club projects the instructor in most cases could not hope to visit all schools at the time of judging. In regard to plot judging it might be necessary to direct that the instructor must not use his car for travelling from the school he is visiting to plots situated at the homes of the children. Centralisation of plots near the school was not always satisfactory and for the coming season might not be feasible, but the ingenuity of instructors and the enthusiasm of local committees would no doubt suggest ways of overcoming the difficulty for the time being. as, for example, by accepting as correct weights recorded by a club member and possibly vouched for by another, and b.y arranging for displays at the school in order to pass some judgment on quality. However unsatisfactory those methods might be, it was better to carry on the club work than to allow it to drop altogether. The department ac'mowledged the enthusiastic co-operation of instructors in the past. Agricultural instructors were expected to use existing rail and road services. Distant schools should be visited not more than twice a year and small schools that could not easily be reached should be dealt with by correspondence and by co-operation with the inspectors.