THE DAIRY SCHOOL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8541, 23 March 1908, Page 3

THE DAIRY SCHOOL.

MEETING AT LEVIN

An indignation meeting was held at Levin on Saturday night for the purpose of protesting against the action of the Government in deciding to establish the dairy school at Palmerston North. Mr B. R. Gardner (Mayor) presided, and in addressing the meeting stated that although they were disappointed at the decision of the Government they were not there to act in a spirit of stubborn opposition. It had always been their opinion that there was only one site for the dairy school and that was the Experimental Farm site at Levin. They were still of the opinion that that was the ideal site "and. thought that the Dairy School should have been given them as a recompense for what they had suffered in having the original State farm placed at Levin. It had never occurred to them that

a dairy school would be erected on from a quarter to half an acre of ground. They thought that farmers' sons would be given a practical allround training and that the practical w r ould have come before the theoretical. It was something now to find the Government ignoring advice given by Departmental experts, which was to tho effect that the State farm was the place where the school should be placed. The meeting had been called

not for the purpose of saying that the farm should be cut up into sections, but they wanted to know what its future was to be and they had a right to ascertain from the Minister what policy was to be adopted in the future. Surely they were not going to allow 800 acres to stand idle without _ doing more than had been done during the past five or ten years. In conclusion he moved the following resolution:—Seeing that the Agricultural Department's experts reported strongly in favour of the Levin Experimental Farm- as the site for the Dairy School this meeting regrets that Cabinet did not submit fpr publication the information and material upon which it rejected its expert officers' reports in fixing tho Dairy School at Palmerston North.—Seconded by Mr McLeavey (Ohau) and carried. Mr H. J. Richards, County Chairman, also spoke in favour of the Experimental Farm as a site and moved as foUows:—That this meeting ask the Minister of Agriculture the intentions of the Government as to the

future destiny of the State Experimental Farm as some more definite and extensive experiments should be carried out and tho farm rendered of more benefit to the Dominion generally. Failing this it would he of more advantage to subdivide it into small farms. Tho motion was seconded by Mr F. Roe and carried. Mr Field, M.P., in a few remarks upon the position, expressed the opinion that the school would have been' better and more useful attached to the farm. It had been decided to carry on the school on almost technical lines and on that score Levin

had not so much to complain about, Palmerston being a larger centre. Regarding the State Farm, he said thero was no doubt it had not been as beneficial as it might have been, but it would bo very wise to retain the farm. ! He had no fault to find with the management of the farm, which had been excellent, but while it was in the hands of the Government it was not even rate-producing. He had don© his best both privately and publicly to secure the farm for Levin. The meeting had been in the best interests of the farm and he thought it would act as a spur to Government to get all they could out of it in the future.