DISCUSSION ON REPORT OF FORESTRY SUB-COMMITTEE. 131 



very few cases they had a little difficulty in following the 

 subjects of the course intelligently owing to their elementary 

 education being somewhat deficient, and this brings me to 

 the real starting-point — the primary school. 



"In order to take full advantage of technical instruction, 

 a sound elementary education is, of course, a sine i/i/a ;io;i, and 

 it is a mistake to load the primary school curriculum with too 

 many extra subjects. As a Nature Knowledge subject, in 

 districts where it is likely to be of use, forestry might be 

 substituted for some other subject of this sort; but to go 

 further than this with forestry in primary schools, even where 

 a considerable proportion of the scholars would be likely to 

 take it up seriously, would only be to attempt to do imperfectly, 

 and therefore expensively, what could be far more effectively 

 done afterwards by the boy's instructors and fellow workmen. 

 Continuation classes should be established in suitable centres 

 for apprentices, and these should form, so to speak, the feeders 

 for the demonstration areas, where properly organised courses 

 of instruction would be found, and where the young men would 

 receive their proper practical training. The demonstration 

 areas would form the stepping-stone to the universities, and 

 thus there would be provided a continuous and easy path from 

 the primary school to the university, for which, of course, in 

 the case of the working forester financial aid would have to be 

 found. I have often heard the question — Should the practical 

 training precede the theoretical, or vice versa ? — discussed. 

 I have no hesitation whatever in saying that if the two cannot 

 be carried on concurrently, the practical training should in- 

 variably come first, and I go further and say that it should be 

 commenced as early as possible. I am pleased to see that in 

 the excellent report by the Forestry Sub-Committee of the 

 Reconstruction Committee, the recommendations of which 

 I am sure we all wish to see put into operation at once, 

 a scheme of education on somewhat similar lines to this is 

 recommended for foresters and foremen, and I trust that in the 

 discussion of this part of the report what I have said here may 

 be of some use." 



Dr Borthwick, speaking on Forestry and the Education 

 (Scotland) Bill, said: — "It is not my intention to criticise 

 the Bill in any way, but to see in how far it will fit in with the 

 aims and objects of forestry education. To begin with there 



