AGRICULTURE’S NEEDS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6918, 25 May 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURE’S NEEDS

DEPARTMENT CENSURED TRIBUTE TO INSTRUCTORS Strong criticism of the Department of Agriculture, and equally strong .praise of the. work of its officers in the field, was expressed at the Auckland provincial conference of the Farmers’ union last week. Mr A. McL. Wright, supporting a remit that grants to the department should be increased, said far too many instructors were hampered in their valuable experimental work on the holdings of individual farmers by having too large a territory to cover and too few assistants. The instructors themselves wore doing magnificent work, and their experimentation on private farms was lessening the expenditure on experimental farms proper, while revealing the needs of varying types of soil all over the country. Mr W. L. Martin, M.P. for Raglan, said the matter of increasing the grants was discussed fruitlessly each year in Parliament. “The whole department needs reorganising from the very top downward,’’ he said. Dr H. E. Annett, of Matangi, formerly in the agricultural service in India, said that on coming to New Zealand he had boon impressed by the type of agricultural officer hero, but ho noticed that agricultural education had been allowed to drift. When New Zealand decided to change its agricultural system and go in more for research, following the establishment of the Massey Agricultural college, it should have secured the advice of an English agriculturist with a really great name. It had taken unqualified advice, but fortunately had made some excellent appointments ,and all would be right iu the end . The remit was carried.