The Agricultural Colleges.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19064, 28 July 1927, Page 8

The Agricultural Colleges.

The summary which we printed yesterday of the Government's measures relating to the two Agricultural Colleges of the Dominion will convince most reasonable people that the course to be taken is in the best interests of the country. At this stage it is no use asking again, as several members of the House did, whether two colleges are necessary; though it is obvious that if two are not necessary the superfluous one is the second to be established. But once the building of a college in the North Island was decided on, it was the Government's duty to ensure that the two institutions would not embark on a wasteful rivalry and that Lincoln College, with a solid record of achievement behind it, should not be neglected. This the new arrangement provides, though, as was expected, several North Island members charged the Government with weakness in yielding to a local agitation. The Government has of course not yielded to an agitation, but to the unassailable case of the agitators, and that is not weakness but strength. If the arguments of the South Island members had not prevailed, the Government would have had to pour out money like water to get the officially recognised institution established, but would not have been able at any cost to transfer the soil, climate, and crops of the South Island to Palmerston North. Under the present scheme the two colleges will be able to develop harmoniously and between them to cover all the farming problems likely to vex the 'Dominion for many years to come. It must also be said that the name " Massey Agricultural " College " is a happy thought on someone's part, since it will be a perpetual reminder of as firm a friend as the farmers of the Dominion ever had.