CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11210, 6 March 1897, Page 5

CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

The report which appeared yesterday upon the farming operations at Lincoln College is much less satisfactory than the friends of agricultural education could wish. Beading between the lines a tone of disappointment may frequently be detected, and it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the institution is not being made of the greatest possible benefit to agricultural students. It is doubtful, for instance, whether all the live stock is of such a quality as to he set before the students as true types of the respective breeds. It is evident that the College should provide instruction for a far greater number of students than are at present in residence; and it is also clear that the students suffer from want of sufficient practice in some of the main farming operations —such, as harvesting and sheep-shearing—and that an increased quantity of land could be much more profitably worked than the present restricted area. The institution, in fact, should he extended in almost every direction. Whether or not it is in the power of the new Board of Governors to do this is a question that cannot be answered until its financial position is ascertained. If the funds of the College should he found to be sufficient to provide agricultural education for New Zealand students, well and good; if not it will he a question whether the institution should not be colonialised and sufficient assistance given by the Government to enable the objects of the College to he carried out. ,Seeing the large sums voted annually for higher education, and expended on the teaching of subjects which are of less practical use in this colony, it seems improbable that Parliament would, if called upon, refuse to vote the necessary additional funds. The Agricultural College was long regarded by the Governors of Canterbury College as an incubus, lather than as one of the most valuable of the institutions under their control; hut it is to he hoped that, now the College is on a separate footing, the ways and means will he found to realise the. objects of its founders.