THE £250,000 ENDOWMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 271, 15 November 1910, Page 4

THE £250,000 ENDOWMENT.

AGRICULTURAI. COLLEGE ADVOCATED. THE PROVINCE'S URGENT NEED.

The recent judgment of the Court of Appeal concerning the educational endowment between Victoria, and Darbyetreets produced comment and suggestion from the chairman of the Education Board (Mr. C. J. Parr) this morning. He was dn Australia when judgment was delivered, he eaid, and he thought the- Board could congratulate itself on the result of its decision to have the matter settled by the Court of Appeal. The endowment .was iworthv at least £250,000, a3n& it was now a-quarter of a century since it was practically handed over to. the Hospital and. Charitable Aid Board for .the purpose of helping (that Board to pay off the loan for hospital purposes. While the Education Board had not succeeded in obtaining the endowment and all the rente in their entirety, yet they had virtually succeeded in their action- According to •the judgment, Mr. Justice Edwards expressed the opinion very strongly that those rents 'belonged to the Education Board. The majority of ihe Court, bowever, thought otherwise. But it was very gratifying to know that the Full Court -were of unanimous opinion that the reserve was for education and for no other purpose. It had been earmarked for that purpose for all time, and there could be no more diversions of that reserve for other purpose. A very gratifying feature was that the Full. Court had expressed the opinion that it was an education reserve for the province of Auckland. It meant that the educational district of Auckland was to receive the .benefit. The city of Auckland would apparently not benefit, 'bnt it was already provided for, and it was just as gratifying to know that those very wealthy endowments would be devoted to educational purposes in some shape or other for the country districts of ithe province. In his opinion, the Board was deserving of the thanks of the whole province for having cleared away the mists attaching to the endowment.

"It has suggested itself to my mind," went on Mr. Parr, "that the rents of this endowment might well "be devoted to agricultural education, which, in my opinion, takes first place in the educational progress of the country. (Members: Hear, hear.) The .province lives by agricultural and pastoral pursuits, •«.nd if we are to hold our own we must ccc that we 'have the ibesi men in the world. What Tve want ie aa agricultural college in this province—a .college on the lines of the Hawiesbury College, in New South Wales; or, what I .think even better still, the Lincoln. College of Canterbury. The Waikato seems to ■be the proper position, but that would be a mere matter of detail. At present, however, we are lagging- behind in the progress of agriculture, and we shall lag behind until we get a modern, -wellequipped agricultural college in this district. No part' -of - the Dominion calk so much for scientific fanning as does Auckland with its diversity of soifc and agricultural conditions. However it is decided to devote (these Tents, legislation -will, of course, be necessary to determine lhbw the funds-shall fee applied. And it -will be the "duty" of this Board to watch very narrowly to see that ■we are not robbed of anything now that the funds have been declared as the lawful belongings of the province foij educational purposes."

Mr. Parr moved: "That, the judgment given by the Full Court in the land endowment ' case be referred to the General Committee of the Board for consideration and a report." The Court, he pointed out, considered that the Board 'was fulry justified ia bringing the action, and so ordered the costs to be paid curt of tlie reserves. The motion was carried.