THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 35, 10 February 1926, Page 8

THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

♦ . SELECTION OF A SITE AUCKLAND PRESS VIEWS. • ,' (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post") < T .; AUCKLAND, This Day. , The decision of the Wellington and Auckland Colleges in regard to the site vof the agricultural university school is warmly approved by both I Auckland newspapers. : The "New Zealand Herald" sayi ■ that, while there may be some disappointment on local grounds, no provincial aspirations should stand in the way. "Whatever legal difficulties may be met in dealing with gifts made to found separate university schools of ". agriculture can be easily overcome," the paper says. " That made by Sir ' John Logan Campbell to Auckland can '!. be diverted by legislation, if need be, i~ and against that procedure no valid L argument can bo brought in face of i the local council's approval of the I joint scheme. Were he alive it is safe j to say he, too, would bo found approv- I ing, and ..doubtless, Sir Robert Stoat, whose memorandum attached to the bequest elaborates the donor's concern for agriculture's scientific advance, will lend his influential advocacy to this very wise and practical proposal." j. The "Herald" goes on to say: "No j precise location is as yet named for the !' projected college. Somewhere in the | Marton-Palmerston North district is, j however, plainly indicated. No better locale could be named. It ia easily accessible to all parts of the North Island. Placed centrally in- a wide rural area possessing soil and climate generally favourable to agricultural study, that district must commend itself as admirable for the purpose it has been suggested. That this new college nifty be a solution of ( the whole university problem of Dominion ideas merits more ■ than passing consideration. A residential university, serving the national need for an institution attracting stud- ' ents from all quarters, may very Well grow eventually out of this new departure. " • The "Star" says: "There may be •! drawbacks to the site chosen. In ex- : plaining the agreement, Mr. Fowlds said that there would be fewer gifts "■ to the college than if it were placed : close to Auckland or Wellington. That' r may be so, but Auckland and Wellington citizens will have plenty of ■cope for their generosity in existing | institutions. The site is admirable for a central college, for it will be easily accessible to the populations cf the Waikato, Taranaki, Wellington, and Hawkes Bay districts, and it will not be so' very.far away from the inhabitants of Nelson and Marlborough. The two councils- are to be warmly congratulated on having sunk their individual interests in a common,policy. The agreement* augurs well not only for the development of agricultural education, but. for broad-minded university progress generally."