Manawatu Daily Times A Plea For Unity

Manawatu Times, Volume XLXI, Issue 3480, 14 December 1926, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times A Plea For Unity

Although the Agricultural College League, formed for the promotion of an Agricultural College in the North Island, is by no means being accorded the sympathetic support it deserves, a pleasing change is becoming apparent in many districts in the attitude of prominent agriculturists and public men towards the object in view. It is being realised that local prejudices and parochial jealousies, even at this late hour, may endanger the realisation of a proposal for which wise and far-seeing men have striven for a life-time. Though their efforts were unsuccessful, they have made it easier for those who came after, by making generous bequests at their deaths. These substantial legacies should be regarded as a sacred obligation to carry on and complete the good work, which every fair and enlightened person must acknowledge to bo in the best interest of the whole of the Dominion . A few days ago the “New Zealand Herald” deprecated the efforts made and the means employed by tiie South Island producers and politicians to deprive the North Island of facilities which they themselves have possessed for years apparently without appreciating or even realising their importance. At the same time, our contemporary deplored the disunion and indifference of the people of the North Island, which made it possible for the political coup d’etat last session to succeed in delaying the early establishment of a national institution. Although every allowance should be made for disappointment felt by the numerous aspirants when the announcement of the final choice was made, the project is far too important to allow any resentment permanently to bar the way to its accom plishment, This “dog in the manger” spirit which has done so mucli mischief in the past should be banned and the producers in the North Island at least should show a united front in so all-important a matter. It is, therefore, particularly gratifying to note that the “Wanganui Chronicle” welcomes the nows that the Government has completed the purchase of the Batchelar estate. “It will be remembered,” says this paper, “that the Government’s original intention was to establish a complete agricultural college, but a change was brought about during the dying hours of the last session of Parliament through opposition on the part of Canterbury. The governors of Canterbury Agricultural College offered to hand over that institution to the Government if the North Island proposal were held-up, and Mr. Coates in his sporting way agreed to modify his plans and take time to go into the matter." However, we cannot quite agree with the “Chronicle” nor with Mr. W. B. Mathicson, who touched upon this matter at the farmers’ meeting held at Wanganui last week, when they say that the Canterbury people have only been putting up a bluff. The “Times” has good reason to believe, that the Canterbury producers and College authorities as well as the South Island politicians are very much in earnest and that it will require all the influence of a united North to induce the Government to push ahead with the larger scheme. At the same time, it should he fully realised that Lincoln College is deserving of every consideration at the hands of the Government. If an agricultural college is essential in the North to best serve the interests of the producers in these parts, similar facilities will be required in the South to serve the needs of certain phases of agriculture peculiar to the South Island. This fact has always been acknowledged, and the “Times” has pointed out in the past just as the “Chronicle” is doing now, that Lincoln College has done so little in the past that its plea for better equipment is certainly justified. The “Chronicle” concludes by saying that “the New Zealand institution must bo placed where it can adequately serve the needs of the Dominion, and that means that ,it must be in an accessible part of the North Island. It is to be hoped that the Government will fully realise that fact and will hasten to make good use of the valuable property it has now acquired.”