AGRICULTURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 July 1924, Page 8

AGRICULTURE.

THE AID OF SCIENC% DEPUTATION TO PREMIER

BY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

WELLINGTON, July 17. The requirements of Victoria College Council towards giving full effect to the proposals in connection with a chair of agriculture was the subject of representation made to the Prime Minister to-day by members of the Council and others interested.

Mr Levi, chairman of the College Council, said the chair had been founded by a gift of £20,000 by Sir Walter Buchanan to be subsidised by the Government. The income did little more than provide the salary of the professor who had been appointed, and iii order to set the chair of agriculture going they must have a farm for practical work. The Council had come to the conclusion that to constitute a chair properly it would be necessarv to appoint extra lecturers for the 1926 session, and suggested that the appointees should be young men who could later take degrees. Professor Perin and Sir Walter Buchanan also spoke. The-Prime Minister said, as a pastoralist, he realised the value of the subject, and that New Zealand was lagging behind in agricultural instruction. He agreed that the headquarters should be on a farm. The subject could not be taught to young farmers fn a classroom, and theory and practice must go together. Professor Perin could be assured that the Government would assist him in his work. “I think we will be able to see that we get value foi- our money, and if that is done there will be no difficulty so far as I am concerned while I am Finance Minister. Your farm is there, and if it is not suitable you have AVeraroa, and there is another in Hawke’s Bay, and one in Auckland.