UNIVERSITY WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1936, Page 10

UNIVERSITY WORK.

FINANCE PROBLEMS.

DOMINION'S RESOURCES.

COMMENT BY MINISTER.

"I agree that a board like this should not be harassed by monetary worries, but even in education wc cannot go past the reasonable resources of tlie country. I don't know that we should try to follow or emulate what has been done in other countries. Many things have, been done in older countries which arc not possible here. We have got to woik out our own education salvation according tc* our resources," stated the Minister of Education, Mr. P. Fraser, yesterday afternoon, when some of the urgent needs of the Auckland University College had been Explained to him by the president of the college council, Mr. X. U. Wells.

The. necessity for ■ providing extra assistance on the staffs of the mathematics, zoology, botany and geology departments had been stressed by Mr. Wells. The physics and chemistry departments were badly understaffed for demonstrating, he added, and the council would be forced this month to provide another demonstrator for physics at £50 a year. The council's finances were sucli that it could not afford even that small amount. The problems of better equipping, the library, replacement and renovating of tlie steel windows in the arts buildings, and repairing the college roads and footpaths were also mentioned by the president. "We do feel that when we are prepared to give our services we should not have so much trouble over the financial part," added Mr. Wells.

The Minister in his reply agreed that it was unsatisfactory that education bodies should not have a certain amount of financial security. He mentioned I that the Director of Education, Mr. N. T. Lambourne, in a recent report, had recommended the stabilisation of university finances for a period of three years. This would enable"-,the universities to look ahead and plan their requirements. The Minister said this scheme appealed to him, though he did not know whether it would work out in practice. It was quite obvious that some of the matters brought before him were not satisfactory, and he assured the council that he would do what was possible to improve them. "The Needs of the Country." "I was hoping you would not mention that," said Mr. Fraser laughingly, when the subject of the engineering school was raised subsequently. The Minister went 011 to make some candid remarks concerning the necessity for preventing the overlapping of university schools and the sinking of local aspirations for the good of the whole Dominion. • . There were big problems ahead in university education, he said. He assured the council that he had 110 prejudices, but he was strongly against unnecessary waste and duplication. It was just a question of the needs of the country. If the medical and dental schools at Otago would* do.jjTor the Dominion, they should not be duplicated. No amount of local patriotism and th? beating of the parochial drums would affect him. The country must be dealt with as a whole unit. It vas just as well to be quite frank about the matter. ' There was a great controversy about, the medical school, but the matter resolved itself into a question of the requirements of the country. The day had gone for putting Wellington against Auckland- or Christchurch against Wellington. A Member 1 Except in football. The Minister: Oh, yes, football is all right. . The Minister .went on to say that the Education Act was long overdue for overhaul, and Parliament had recognised it for years. This would be undertaken by the present Government, but it was not going to be done in a dictatorial way. The problems had got to be approached in a scientific. spirit. He said that the Government had a good deal of material to 'Work on in Mr. Lambourne's report and the report of the Recess Commission. The overhaul and consolidation of the Act and its amendments, he assured, the council, would not be done without consulting the people concerned, and he would be glad of any suggestions for improvement. In conclusion, the Minister remarked that the advent of a new Government meant the letting loose of all the dammed-up hopes I and aspirations which, when released, vcre like an avalanclic coming down. I