Institute, College Praise Mr L.W. McCaskill

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30763, 29 May 1965, Page 17

Institute, College Praise Mr L.W. McCaskill

Tributes were paid to Mr c L. W. McCaskill, who retired yesterday as director of < the Tussock Grasslands and i Mountain Lands Institute, at < a meeting of the management < committee of the institute at i Lincoln and also at 1 a function attended by the staff of Lincoln College. The chairman of the management committee of the institute (Mr R. M. D. John- ; son) said that Mr McCaskill, ( as first director of the institute, had made a notable con- ' tribution in bringing together , more closely the high-country farmers and representatives of Government departments in approaching their common problems in the high country. Mr McCaskill, he said, had for long been interested in soil conservation, being an original member of the North Canterbury Catchment Board and subsequently representing South Island catchment boards on the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council. Finally, as director of the institute he had performed a co-ordinating role to the advantage of all. At a function in the refectory at the college the principal (Dr. M. M. Burns), presented Mr McCaskill with a cheque from members of the college staff. Mr McCaskill was a member of the college staff from 1944 until 1960. Honours Student Dr. Burns recalled that Mr McCaskill 46 years ago came to the college as a student, and in 1930 was the first student to graduate as master with first-class honours. Mr McCaskill had always been a stimulating personality, said Dr. Burns, and often controversial. He had always been prepared to look at broad issues and offer fresh ideas, and while those who heard him had not always agreed with him they had

enjoyed his contributions. Dr. Burns said that Mr McCaskill had been invited to accept the status of an honorary member of the college’s George Forbes Memorial Library, the second person to be given this honour. Change In Course In his reply, Mr McCaskill expressed regret that the professorial board of the college had split the rural education course into two separate subjects—rural education and extension method. The course, he said, had included rural sociology and educational principles on which methods of agricultural extension were based. These were part of the one whole, and he suggested that the most appropriate memorial to him would be restoration of this in its earlier form. The great need in New Zealand today was not for more money for expenditure on scientific and agricultural research, he said, but for an intensive and effective extension programme. Recently Mr McCaskill was also presented with a cheque from the Lincoln College Old Students’ Association.