Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1938. AN OPPORTUNITY NEGLECTED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1938. AN OPPORTUNITY NEGLECTED.

;j z\S a visiting committee reported to the Wairarapa College Board of Governors on Thursday evening, the scheme under which members of the agricultural classes at the college are getting practical instruction and experience at the Training Farm at Penrose provides a splendid nucleus for greater things in the future. It is, on that account and "others, extremely disappointing to be informed that regret was expressed that the agricultural classes at the college were so small in numbers. It must be hoped that this state of affairs will be amended speedily _ as the advantageous conditions in which agricultural training is offered and may be developed in the Wairarapa come to be better known and appreciated. A suggestion offered at the meeting of the Board of Governors that the position should be Considered seriously by individual farmers and organisations of farmers is one that may be endorsed unreservedly. This obviously is a district in which agricultural education should be developed to the fullest practicable extent. Agriculture is the mainstay of the Wairarapa, and the day of the rule of thumb, happy-go-lucky farmer has passed or is nearly over. The future in farming, whether on a large or a small scale, evidently is for the man who qualifies himself at least to the point of being able to make full use of scientific and technical guidance. On the scale on which it is organised and equipped, Wairarapa College should easily bear comparison with any school in the Dominion, and'so far as specialised instruction in agriculture is concerned, the association of the training Farm with the college is a development of great' value and. promise. ...The extent and the rapidity with which the excellent foundation thus provided is to be built upon must depend largely on the factor of effective demand by an adequate flow of pupils. • Parents desirous of seeing their sons and daughters follow them in a life on the land, fitted and qualified to meet the increasingly exacting demands that are being made upon those engaging in farming industry, should readily perceive in the facilities that are offered at \\ airarapa College and the Training Farm a practical means of bringing that aim to realisation. It is definitely to the loss of the district that a number 'of efforts in the past to promote and extend agricultural education in the Wairarapa have failed for want of support. Apathy on the part of parents and a rather common practice of sending boys and girls to schools in other districts have a good deal to do with the matter. All that need be asked is that fair and, full consideration should be given to the advantages that' Wairarapa College offers where agricultural instruction and other branches of education are concerned, and to the extent to which these advantages undoubtedly may be broadened and enlarged if they are turned to account as they ought to be.