UNIVERSITY ROLE IN N.Z. LIFE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28016, 10 July 1956, Page 7

UNIVERSITY ROLE IN N.Z. LIFE

“GREAT VALUE FOR MONEY SPENT” DR. J. WILLIAMS’S VIEW (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 9. Operating with a very modest proportion of the national income, the university gives the public great value for its money, said Dr. J. Williams, principal of Victoria University College, at a luncheon address to members of the Wellington Junior Chamber of Commerce today. What did the country get for its £300,000 a year investment? he asked. The long term benefits accruing from the work of a few researchers paid manifold dividends, he continued. Examples were the huge sums saved by the dairy industry since researchers found that penicillin cut down losses from mastitis and the £lOOO research programme which has saved fruit farmers £25.000 a year in apples usually spoiled by a single disease. “One of the main reasons why industry has prospered so mightily in the United States is the manner in which educational opportunity is broadcast far and wide,” he said. “There is greater opportunity for higher education than in the United Kingdom, Australia, or New Zealand, and more people take advantage of it.

“Graduates are in such terrific demand in New Zealand that industry, commerce, the professions, and the Public Service tempt them away from the university as soon as they have completed their bachelors’ degrees.”