LEAVING IT TO THE STATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 185, 8 August 1927, Page 6

LEAVING IT TO THE STATE.

It ought not to Burprise anyone that in establishing a system of agricultural education the Government has been influenced by political necessities. The surprising and regrettable thing is that the work has been left to the Government to do. Let anyone consider that the primary products of New Zealand, in both quality and quantity, have earned the Dominion fame abroad and relative prosperity at home; then how comes it that the primary producers, dominant in numbers and influence, have not founded and endowed an agricultural college for themselves? By co-operation they could have done it magnificently, or it could have been done equally well by a few of the men who have made" great fortunes on the land. Instead, the farmers have done little voluntarily, and the Government is to tax the people (including the farmers) a little more, and keep two colleges going by annual grants of money which will, no doubt, increase in amount with the years. This tendency of every class to "leave it to the Government" has been deplored by all public men, but when university education is left to the Government a most serious danger arises. Can any university play a full part, a independent part, a vital part, in th© national life when it is dependent for its existence on the Government of the day? The experience of the existing University Colleges does not enable us to answer "Yes" with confidence. An agricultural college, one thinks, will sooner or later approach tho many economic problems affecting farms and farmers. It is possible, too, that some of those problems will at the time be controversial and "political." Suppose, for instance, that the college's department of economics, after research came to the reasoned (although not necessarily correct) conclusion that the average farm was too small for economic efficiency or that farm labourers were not paid an economic wage. What would be the response of the Government of the day ? It is all too probable that as punishment for criticising the Government (almost a sin in the Dominion now) the college would have some of its needs unsatisfied until its professors "learned sense." (The response of one politician, if he had his way, would be to order all agricultural students to salute the flag at 9.10 a.m. each day!). Yet it is only by scientific research and free discussion of its problems, disregarding political slogans or beliefe that are merely old, that the agricultural college will achieve results which will enable New Zealand to hold its place in the world's markets. Years of talking into "Hansard" won't help. The necessity of financial independence is unquestionably just as great for the other colleges of the Dominion. Indeed, the greatest boon which could be conferred on New Zealand in this year of grace would be an endowment that would' permit one university college to be absolutely independent of the politicians and everybody else, free to set and maintain its own standards, free to pursue its highest ideals. —ORONGO.