LINCOLN COLLEGE BUILDING

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23401, 7 August 1941, Page 3

LINCOLN COLLEGE BUILDING

Renovation Not Justified VIEW OF MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE

The renovation of the main building at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, is not justified in existing circumstances, in the opinion of the Minister for Agriculture (the Hon. J. G. Barclay). This information was contained in a telegram received last night from the Acting-Prime Minister (the Hon. W. Nash) by Mr W. S. MacGibbon, chairman of a committee representative of the Lincoln College Old Students’ Association, the Farmers’ Union, the Canterbury Progress League, and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. Mr Nash’s telegram was in reply to a request by the committee that he and the Minister for Agriculture . should meet a deputation to receive additional information about a resolution asking the Government to place on the supplementary estimates the money required for the renovation of the mam building. This resolution was passed after an inspection of the college last week by representatives of local bodies, farming and other organisations and business interests from all over Canterbury. ‘T have discussed your telegraph letter of August 1 with my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, who advises me that under existing circumstances, the work which you propose at Lincoln College, to which he has given very close study, is not justified,” said Mr Nash in his reply. "The pressure of war and Parliamentary work is heavy at present, but if still desired I will endeavour to meet the deputation at a time to be arranged.’’ On behalf of the committee, Mr MacGibbon sent the following reply last night: “Referring to your telegram, representatives of the Old Students Association, Farmers’ Union, Canterbury Progress League, and Canterbury Chamber of Commerce would appreciate meeting you and the Minister for Agriculture in regard to Lincoln College at the earliest possible date convenient to you when further important representations on this important matter will be made.” Mr Mac Gibbon released the telegram tor publication following a meeting of the Canterbury Progress League last evening, after he had consulted the other members of the committee.

URGENT HOUSING PROBLEM

EFFECT ON TRAINING OF FARMERS “The college should be in a position to play its full part in the work of repatriation after the war and perhaps during the war,” said Mr R. T. McMillan, president of the Canterbury Progress League, when he referred at last evening’s meeting to the efforts made by the league and other organisations to have the main building at Lincoln College renovated. “Unless it can do this, the training of men for farming industries will be seriously retarded,” added Mr McMillan. Reporting on a recent inspection of the college by representatives of local bodies, the Farmers’ Union, and other organisations, Mr McMillan said there was not the least doubt that many of the rooms there were quite unfit for human habitation. If they were located in the city they would be condemned by the inspectors, apd the authorities would be obliged to rebuild. The housing problem at the college, therefore, appeared to be just as urgent as it was in some of the crowded cities and towns where Government houses were being erected to ease the, pressure. _ • ’’Surely 'these facts will bring home to everybody that Lincoln College is faced with a serious housing problem urgently waiting to be solved,” said Mr McMillan. “Unless something is done immediately to remedy this serious state of affairs, the position will become more acute with the passage of time.” . . , . . Mr McMillan said he wished to make it clear that he was not criticising the Government. He understood that the Government had been generous to Lincoln College in recent years, and it might feel that the renovations asked for were not sufficiently urgent to warrant their being put in hand until after the war. Mr Mac Gibbon said he had received a reply from the Acting-Prime Minister (the Hon. W. Nash) to a telegram suggesting that he should receive a deputation from the Lincoln College Old Students’ Association, the Farmers’ Union, the Canterbury Progress League, and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, but as he had not discussed the contents of the telegram with the, other signatories, he could not reveal them in open meeting. After Mr Nash’s reply _ and other matters had been dealt with in committee, Mr McMillan suggested that further discussion should be suspended. ____________