THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1882.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6424, 20 June 1882, Page 4

THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1882.

We suppose most people approve of som6 facilities being afforded for regular agricultural education by the i establishment of agricultural colleges. ! The necessity is aclftibwledged in all ;civilised countries, and in'many of the lold ones the educational arrangements ;are elaborate and complete. In [countries, where the local circumstances are so often unfamiliar to the ihusbandman, the necessity is of' course far greater, and the desirability of making a beginning as soon as possible in the educational way is widely felt. The question concerns town "as well as country—does or ought to interest (everybody, for agriculture, the natural mainstay everywhere, is pre-eminently so in young communities, and the pfbigress of all' other industries: is influenced by the progress of the great rural one. More than twelvemonths •ago pur Auckland Chamber of Coin•merce recommended. a commencement iof educational arrangements in this line ; and. now we see the iDunedin iOhamber of Opmmerce endorses the I \ movement which has sprung,up in Otago for the establishment there of a jcollege of agriculture. The movement

jhas "wide approval, but wonderful to •say, .antagonism .is exhibited from a -quarter where .. naturally it -would be. least looked for. Our Dunedin correspondent tells us that. "while the ■proposal is receiving strong support, practical • agriculturists ' look; at it ; coldly ;■ the Taieri farmers regard the scheme as one which would not be pro•ductive of any real good, and would jonly lead to a useless expenditure of Jmoney." A .useless expenditure of jmoney ! This certainly is an unrwonted exhibition of tenderness for Ithe public funds—unexpected from (that latitude! The proposed college would not cost much—would involve ino large outlay. But even if it did, a Jarge local expenditure from the public funds is not a thing usually complained of in the region of the Taiei'i farmers, !nor indeed in any other region. We can hardly believe that this consideration can have much potency in the antagonism exhibited. But it may be that those " practical agriculturists" of Taieri know so much already, that ■to suggest further, knowledge is a slight and an offence. Well, if that be so," they might still remember that there are other - fellows, and probably so.mei even in ..their own neighbourhood, who are not in the same happy plight, but have room for improvement, and who might therefore be glad that their spns.could at some early day obtain the new lights of agricultural instruction, or that settlers' 1 who have obtained such instruction; , might in due course be scattered among them. It is so hard to discover any reasonable motive for this curious hostility, that it really looks as if that;not altogether fabulous creature, " the dog in the manger," had got off his chain in the Taieri district. It has now become,evident that if the institution of agricultural colleges is to be carried j out, it will not be confined to one quarter, and that while it would do good in the South it would do far greater good in the North, where nature gives opportunities ;of agricultural progress not. possible at the folder end of the , 'colony, and invites a lucrative circle;of .industries, '.which are.stillun, ;

—;—^rr-r —r —.,i ; , ~—~—~ j y u>7 .;*« familiar to us. Is it. this jealous feeling. tten which stirs the Taieri men? We are not disposed to believe it.' We are inclined to beliere that it is simply that absolute horror of all innovation which characterises so many of those singularly unpractical' 'people who are apt to plume themselves en being [ eminently " practical men."

; " Oh, Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy ria'use !" is ah historical saying. Just as.. remarkable is the monstrous amount of blundering and stagnation which' is in the yrorld, ticketed with the title of " practical." Those " practical agriculturists" who, we see by our correspondence, have set up their backs at the college scheme, are the sort of people who constitute themselves a deadweight in a community,, and if they could only manage matters no community would come to much. .Those are the people who cannot tolerate any arrangement which had not the luck to go to school ■with them—who flare up at the bare' mention of as some "of their birds do at tHe sight, of a bright colour. Very worthy, people in many respects they may be, but we are afraid' it would take a. surgioal operation .to get a new idea, into some of their heads. It is reckless folly of the surrounding world te- move forward, as it is their determination to, stand still.' Practical men indeed ! Agriculture is hotafixed science; but a progressive) one; and, moreover, the different circumstances of a new country and an old one do not admit of rooted obstinacy in.' 'old 1 grooves;'•. This want of adaptability and intolerance of new ideas are noWj ]we believe, extinct among farmers at Home, but in previous generations [there was a good deal of it, and it led American writers ... to ' remark how jnotably many - successful husbandmen were not rural immigrants, but townsmen, who had no prejudices against 'adapting , themselves to novel conditions ; and as their ignorancej whatever it might cost, could be improved' upon, -it was, after all, less ruinous than the I prejudice against all change, far harder ! to get rid of. .. I* For cultivation in New Zealand of old country .crops, the "practical agriculturists," who, we are. told, object to agricultural.colleges; may have all the skill needful, but there are ■ parts' of the colony which admit of i other and more profitable branches of i cultivation; and moreover, as in all branches agriculture is a progressive

science, it does not seem very "practical " ;.to tibject to an jeducatiqnal system, ■which in diie. course Svould spread such .instruction—here as-at the other side:of-tKe globe. It is not only important. but necessary tp-have such an educational system ; and because it must walk before it ban run—because it caiihot be elaborated at once, and the first beginnings must be small, are certainly no argaments against an early beginning being made. ; -