Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, SEPT. 6, 1928. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 239, 6 September 1928, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, SEPT. 6, 1928. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

The 1927 Parliamentary session was prolific in legislation directly affecting agriculture, no less than twelve Bills bearing upon various phases of the primary producers’ interests being passed intd law, while two others contained provisions affecting those interests. Four out of the twelve Acts thus passed deal with agricultural education. They are the Massey Agricultural College Act, the Canterbury College and Canterbury Agricultural College Act, the Howard Estate Amendment Act, and the Institute of Horticulture Act. The first three were made, possible by the endowments for the establishment of chairs of agricqltuxh at the Auckland and Wellington University Colleges by the late Sir John Logan Campbell, who bequeathed a sum of £20,000 for that purpose, and by the late . Sir Walter Buchanan who, during his lifetime, made* a gift of £IO,OOO to the Wellington University College for a similar purpose. The late Josiah Howard’s bequest of his Smedley Station, in the Hawke’s Bay district, to His Majesty the Ring (actually the Government) as a foundation or endowment for the purposes of agricultural education completes the list of benefactions which have made it possible ■ for the Government to devote more of its time, attention and resources to educational purposes where agriculture is concerned. With the Massey Agricultural College so near at hand, Palmerston North and Manawatu people generally have ample opportunities for noting the beneficial effect of the college training upon the students in their first year courses. The Canterbury, or as it has been more generally known, Lincoln Agricultural College ; was established and endowed many years ago by the far-seeing public men, who, in the early days of settlement in the province, recognised the need and made such generous provision for educational purposes in the shape of endowments. It has proved possibly the most helpful agency in the training of young men entering upon farming careers that has been available for such a purpose. Although subsidised by the Government from time to time, it has never been under the direct control of the State, and its training has been not merely theoretical but practical throughout, the students being made re-

sponsible for carrying- out all tlie work of tlie college farm, even to performing the menial duties that fall to the farm labourer’s lot. The training throughout has thus been eminently sensible, covering all that the average farmer needs to know concerning the nature of soils and pastures, the use of manures, the treatment of stock in health and disease, and all the. business relating to cropping, etc. Prior to the passing of the Canterbury College and Canterbury Agricultural College Act of last year, the college had legal sanction under the Act of 1896, but it lacked the authority to confer degrees in agricultural science, which it now enjoys under the 1927 Act, in common with the Massey Agricultural College, for university purposes, attendance at either of these agricultural colleges being accepted as equivalent to attendance at their respective university colleges—that is, in the case of the Massey College, attendance at either the Auckland or Victoria University Colleges, and in that of Lincoln College attendance at the Canterbury University College. The two agricultural colleges being placed on an equal footing in regard to the conferment of degrees, etc., all cause for dissatisfaction on the part of the authorities . controlling the older college is removed.

OTEER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.

The Howard Estate Act of 1919 and the amending Acts of 1926 and 1927 enable the revenues accruing from the estate, which is held in trust by the Public Trustee, to be applied as a permanent endowment for the establishment and maintenance of a school or institute of agricultural education under the control of the Minister of Agriculture, to be known as the Howard Agricultural Institute, and for the improvement and development of the estate. A Howard Estate Advisory Board is established, constituted of representatives of the Hawke’s Bay provincial district to advise the Minister of Agriculture and the Public Trustee in regard to the management of the estate and the utilisation of the revenue derived therefrom. It. is further provided that, in addition to the purposes mentioned, the revenue from the estate may be used for the assistance and development of agricultural research, or public agricultural education in New Zealand in a manner likely to be of special but not necessarily exclusive benefit to farming in the provincial district of Hawke’s Bay. This latter provision will enable such research and education to be carried on, if thought desirable, elsewhere than at the Howard Agricultural Institute when the latter is established. With the two agricultural colleges and the Howard Agricultural Institute, the Dominion should be well equipped for agricultural educational purposes. In addition, however, there _is the Act of last year establishing the Institute of Agriculture, which constitutes as such an incorporated body of horticulturists, scientists, public men and private citizens in all parts of the Dominion, together with a number of other bodies interested in agriculture and affiliated to the institute. The Act authorises the institute to conduct examinations under a scheme to be approved by the Government, and to grant certificates and diplomas upon the results of such examinations, thus encouraging gardeners and others earning their livine- by doing horticultural work to undertake further study in order to obtain the institute’s certificates or diplomas. The Act also makes provision for the issue, during a limited period, of diplomas without examination to horticulturists of not less than 40 years of age and not less than twenty years experience. The institute is understood to be preparing its scheme of examinations for the approval of the Government, and as soon as this is given the way will be open for the syllabus and conditions of examination to be made public, and it is hoped, within a comparatively short period, to establish the horticulture of New Zealand upon-a distinctly higher level. It is noteworthy that in each of. these enterprises public spirited citizens have paved the way for Government action.