PENNY WISE, POUND FOOLISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 12, 15 January 1929, Page 6

PENNY WISE, POUND FOOLISH.

Jhe Public Service Commissioner is advertising for an Assistant in Agrostology for the Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. Applicants must possess a University degree or an equivalent diploma from some recognised Agricultural College; they must have "a good knowledge of botany, soil science, pastures and agriculture generally"; and the candidate fortunate enough to be selected is to receive for his services the munificent sum of £210 a year. In other words, our Scientific Research Department is attempting to secure the services of a university graduate, equipped with a comprehensive knowledge, of agricultural science, for less than the wages of a good carpenter or bricklayer. If this not sweating, we know no better term that can be applied to it. But we are not thinking only of the unfortunate graduate, fully primed with a knowledge of Agrostology and all its accessories, who is asked to accept what is for a teacher in such a position virtually a starvation wage. What are we to think of the policy which, professing to promote the scientific development of our primary industries, sacrifices the chance of securing or retaining the services of well-qualified men by such ill-timed parsimony? We hope that the Minister in charge of this Department will look into this matter without delay.