SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 10, 9 December 1937, Page 13

SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE

IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT

MEASURE GOES THROUGH

The Minister of Agriculture (Hon. W. Lee Martin) moving the second reading of the School of Agriculture Bill in the House, traced the history of the development of agricultural education in New Zealand since its inception, and said the Bill would prove a milestone As far as agricultural development in this country was concerned. Mr H. S. S. Kyle said lie thought the Minister’s proposals contained in the Bill for the control of both Massey and Lincoln Colleges would meet the position very well and overlapping in the work of'the colleges be eliminated altogether. It would put agricultural education on a standard that would compare more than favourably with that of any other Dominion. ■ Mr E. J. Howard congratulated the Minister on the Bill, stating that the measure would be responsible for the return of thousands of pounds to the South Island as the result of increased facilities which would be possible for tlie teaching of better farming methods to students of agriculture. Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes said that in Canterbury and other parts of New Zealand farmers were suffering colossal losses of stock, particularly sheep, as a result of a lot of new diseases about which little was known. For that reason it was essential that a greater amount of research should be undertaken, and that men should be trained to gjve the country a simply of qualified students who could assist the fanner to combat the spread of these diseases'.

The Bill was read the third time and passed.