UNIVERSITY COMMISSION

Evening Star, Issue 19005, 29 July 1925, Page 6

UNIVERSITY COMMISSION

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, July 29

_ Giving evidence before the University Commission, Mr G. S. Percn, professor of agriculture at Victoria. University, stated that the facilities for training for research work for employment in the Department of Agriculture, or as a teacher of agriculture, were at the moment deplorably weak. The additional facilities required would entail considerable expenditure. There was a marked need for a number of well-trained men, hut owing to the small size of the country the annual requirements were proportionately small. With Lincoln College in the South Island,, one new school in the North Island would be quite sufficient, to meet the requirements of the country for many years to come. There was an enormous field for agricultural research in the dominion, and if grants were made for two schools in the North Island _ one school should confine its activities to research, so that unnecessary duplication would he avoided, and the money well spent. Unless either the Government or the University came forward with a good policy, and was strong enough to adhere to the present effort to establish facilities for training in keeping with the dominion’s position as an agricultural country, it would he the victim of sectional' and selfish interests, and agricultural education in the_ University would bo doomed to a period of ana?mic mediocrity.