THE EDUCATIONALIST. 73 



19 but no other class should be entitled to the full minimum 

 wage until the age of 21. 



I should prefer a wage being given from the day a boy starts 

 his apprenticeship rather than after three months : and I should 

 give facilities for anyone who is older than the ordinary appren- 

 tice and who wishes to do so, to go in for apprenticeship just 

 now, and would also like to make his course a little more rapid, 

 if possible. 



If the scheme was worked out with proper safeguards, the 

 result would be an annual supply of reliable young men, who 

 knew then: work and took an interest in it. 



Their knowledge would be good for themselves and good for 

 their employers : they would raise the standard of labour 

 they would by their proficiency reduce the cost of production, 

 they would add to the dignity of the labourer's position : no 

 good employer would grudge them a good wage, and they would 

 have every prospect of getting on in Agriculture. At present 

 there are fewer good labourers than for many years. 



I have taken apprenticeship as applied to the labourer not 

 because I wished to single out that class of agriculturist but 

 merely because when I first thought of the subject it was the 

 training of the labourer which I had in mind : mostly, I sup- 

 pose, because it had been so obvious during the last year or 

 two that a man who has not been trained to the work is not 

 able (even with the best will in the world) to do his fair share 

 in getting the best out of the land or stock or horses. 



But it would be of great interest to me if others were to fol- 

 low up the subject : as most of us who are connected with 

 the land ought to know more about it, and if you, sir, would 

 get, say, Mr. Edwards, to read us a paper on the training of a 

 good farmer, or some leading spirit of the Farmers' Union 

 would oblige with a paper on what constitutes a good landlord 

 it would do good, and we should all be better for an ideal to 

 aspire to. 



Perhaps I have been more fortunate than some, but as far 

 as my experience goes I find that there is a much better under- 

 standing and more good-fellowship between all the classes who 

 have an interest in Agriculture than there appears to be in 

 certain other industries : the land, to my mind, is apt to make 

 one patient, and the contact with nature makes for a spirit of 

 reasonableness which seems absent in many pursuits. 



In the course of the discussion on this paper the workers' 

 representatives made some specially interesting observa- 

 tions. Mr. George Nicholls said he had for many years 

 urged farmers to encourage lads to make themselves efficient 



