DOMESTIC ECONOMICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7815, 7 June 1909, Page 4

DOMESTIC ECONOMICS.

The University of Otago has benefited by the neglect or inability of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College to avail themselves of the offer of Mr John Studholme, of Coldstream, Hinds, to contribute the sum of £200 per annum for three years towards the cost of maintaining a chair of Home Economics m Canterbury College. Mr Studholme has now, through the vicechancellor, transferred his generous offer to Otago University, and it was laid yesterday before a. meeting of the Council of that institution. It is stipulated by Mr Studholme that a chair of Domestic Science, and not a mere lectureship, shall be esablished by the Council if his offer is accepted. He is of opinion that the services of a duly qualified professor, who should preferably be secured m America---instruc-tion m home economics being ; a feature of the course m some of the universities of the United States--should be commanded for, a sum of £500 to £600 a year. His own offer is, therefore, to provide for' a period of three years practically one-tK of the sum that would be requir pay the salary of the professor/ Government subsidy which Mr i „ holme's contribution would carry .'duld represent an-, other £200, and students' fees and the capitation allowance that would \be earned by the classes m terms of the Education Act would probably provide the balance that would bo necessary to maintain the chair during the early years of its existence. The finance 1 of the scheme seems likely, therefore, to present little difficulty. As a matter of fact, a proposal m which Dr F. C. Batchelor and Dr Truby King have interested themselves, under 'which the work of the professor of Domestic Science m the University would be Coordinated to cognate extra-mural work, places an additional sum at the disposal of the Council. Mr Studholme's offer at the present time seems to have been partly inspired by the spirited references which were made by Dis Batchelor and King at the recent meeting of the Society for the Promotion oi the Health of Women and Children to the necessity for a wider knowledge of the principles of domestic science, and he frankly relates it to the results'of the activity of that Society as well 'as to the existence of the Medical School m Dunedin. Drs Batchelor and King themselves, m an important communication which we publish from them this morning, suggest tf method whereby the influence of the professor of Domestic Economies m the University would be extended throughout the community. With a view to the furtherance of this movement they have procured offers of financial assistance from a few persons whom they could readily reach, to the vextent of about £500 per annum for three years. Of this sum a portion will be at>pro;jriated under conditions that should admit of ready acceptance, to the special -nirpose of the establishment of the University chair, the balan^s being devoted to the prosecution, of the work which, they contemplate, shall be »xarried on m co-ordination with that of the professor. The whole scheme is necessarily somewhat nebulous at the present time, but the prospective advantage of it are very considerable, and we cannot doubt thai, when the details have been' formulated and when the possibilities of it have been completely realised, the community will recognise that it has every cause to be grateful to Mr Studholme' and the public-spirited members of our own population whose liberality has made the establishment of a chair of Domestic Science m the University of Otago virtually assured.—-Otago Daily Times, June 5.