ON EDUCATIONAL TRAINING FOR OVERSEAS LIFE. 453 



this education iu the Humanities, definite scientific training was desirable. 

 He considered it most important to bring both Britisli and Dominion 

 farmers to realise more than they did to-day the vahie of the teaching of 

 science as applied to agriculture. 



He was glad to notice that special efforts were being made in regard 

 to emigration in connection with the public schools. There was a definite 

 New Zealand scheme for emigration for public school boys ; further than 

 that they were now having two very important developments, viz. the 

 interchange of teachers between the Dominions and this country, and 

 also the first organised Empire tour of boys of different public schools. 



He also called attention to the great importance of geographical 

 teaching, which could be of immense value in educating the mind, the 

 growing mind particularly. He did not mean geography which merely 

 dealt with place names, topography, but real geography, economic 

 geography — man in relation to his environment. He considered there 

 was a great need both here and in the Dominions for extending the 

 knowledge of the economic and historical geography of the Empire. 



There was one further point which should not be forgotten — naitiely, 

 the inevitable contrast between life in the young new Dominions and 

 the life in this country as we knew it to-day. That contrast particularly 

 applied to the educated mind, and particularly to the educated women 

 of this country who were going out. He had also heard it said by people 

 of the Dominions in speaking of agriculture that they would rather take 

 a town lad from England between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, pro- 

 vided they got him before he was spoiled, than take a man who had been 

 in agricultural surroundings in this country all his life, because it was 

 easier to train quite raw material than to unlearn the habits of those who 

 had become ingrained from youth up. That was why all proposals to 

 train for any length of time those who were going to the Dominions over- 

 seas in practical agricultural work in this country had to be examined 

 very carefully. 



Any attempt to deal with the needs of our own people in this country, 

 by the inclusion in our public schools and imiversities of a special course 

 for intending emigrants, was not an easy problem. To the fact that 

 educated people were wanted oversea he could testify. He knew from 

 the Dominions and from the point of view of the Colonial Office the 

 difficulty of getting trained men for education, agriculture, and for research 

 work. He earnestly hoped that steps would be taken to increase the 

 interest in scientific research, particularly in regard to agriculture. 



Sir Daniel Hall said he would confine his remarks to agriculture 

 alone, and agriculture was a matter of prime importance to the Empire. 

 As he should have occasion to lay before the Association later on, we were 

 likely to get short of food in no very distant future, and therefore the 

 development of the food resources of the Empire was of importance if 

 wa.were to keep ourselves. With regard to this great question of agri- 

 culture and the employment therein overseas of young men from this 

 country, there was not the slightest doubt that the young Englishman 

 had not a good character in the Dominions. That arose from various 

 reasons : first of all, in certain countries they were accustomed to the boy 

 who had been sent there for his country's good, and he, of course, did 



