MR PITCAITHLY AND HIS HARVEST.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 145, 24 December 1901, Page 3

MR PITCAITHLY AND HIS HARVEST.

TO THK KDIT9B. Sib —Mr Pitcaithly's harvest does net seem to have panned out very well, and he must have a very poor opinion of his pupils, if he thinks theywill forget in a month what has taken him 12 mogtha to teach them. And when they have got it all, there is only a very small percentage that ever make any use of it, for they are mostly crammed with a lot of rubbish that is Useless to them When they become men and women. Mr Pitcaithly makes a rather dirty remark, when he states that the strawberry growerß want boys out of the second standard and upwards, as they will work for small wages aud have not the saule sense to combiue as the older boys have. Tho dearest boys we get are the small boys, learners who are always picking the wrong berries Boys that can pick and are out of Mr Pitcaithly's clutches are the cheapest for the grower";-'their earnings are from 18s to 20s per week and tucker. The learners can make from Is to 2s 6d per day at piece work. No such money can 'be made outside of a strawberty garden by them, a*t 'there is not the work for them ,to go to. The parents of these children have as much sense as Mr Pitcaitbjy, and can be trusted to "-sand theirychildren to the man that will their labour. Mr Pitcarih.l;.? 'ifo 1 * harves/, cheque nice and easy. He gats well paid for 12 months' work, and works only about six mbnths, taking off Saturdays, rainy days and holidays. - There i& fto wind to shake out his crop ;no rain to spoil it. Now which should stand first, and which fcive'wayto tH other: The "schoolmaster's -titfcWsfc or the farmer's •harvest f The 'former can he done Without, but the latter is indispensable. Our beautiful fruit and corn of all sorts, vegetables, cattle, horses and sheep are the products of tho farm. Many] of oar fruits in the wild state are useless as food and many vegetables. For these we are indebted to the -gardener,-■ and to -the farmer for all field products such as wheat, oats, barley, peas and beans, cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and a preat variety of Other things which have'taken hundreds of years to bring to such perfection. If •the school masters would teach these things to their scholars, I think the result would be much better, and the teaching a croat deal more useful and interesting. Thus eudethvtko second lesson. lam, etc ~ .: * Opposition.