THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1924. AGRICULTURE'S URGENCY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18703, 8 May 1924, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1924. AGRICULTURE'S URGENCY.

In advocating the desirability of speedy action in Auckland to establish facilities for higher education in agriculture, the Minister for Education has said not a word too much. The urgency is so great that he could not be too emphatic. The initiative lies with the University College Council, and Mr. Parr was addressing the Board of Education. But the board can lend valuable aid in getting a practical scheme in operation. It has representation on the College Council, in recognition of the need and possibility of close correlation between the board's and j the council's spheres of responsibility. The postulate of a national system of education is that no part of it is unrelated to any other. The board is vitally interested in whatever may be attempted, or even merely contemplated, by the council in this, as in other activities. 'Dealing with the primary and secondary stages of education in agriculture, it must needs' make that preparatory work minister to !the effectiveness of the higher st?,ge. In turn, it looks to the university to supply an adequately equipped staff of agricultural instructors. So even the primary and the tertiary activities in education are mutually dependent and contributory. To both the board and the council, in their dif-

ferent spheres, the community

looks, at all events, for serious and practical attention to the district's

need. The need of the hour is close co-operation to put education in agriculture on a betted footing in the North.

This is an instance where there should not be any dependence on other parts of the Dominion. This district has its own particular needs in agricultural research. Its resources of soil and climate are broadly different from those of other areas. The facts that give it a strong claim for its own school or schools of agriculture have been embodied convincingly in Sir John Logan Campbell's will and Sir Robert Stout's attached memorandum. They have been voiced by Professor Macmillan Brown from the chair of the University Senate. Mr. Parr expressed some of them in his words to the Education Board. If the best results are to be achieved in agriculture in this district, it must have its own institutions, devoted to the solution of its own problems and the exploitation of its own resources. , There is ;no parochialism in this. It is but the surest and most effective way of contributing to the whole Dominion's prosperity. And, as Auckland needs its own institutions in agricultural education, so must it spare no pains to get them. Happily, an excellent financial foundation has been laid in Sir John Logan Campbell's munificent gift of £20,000 and this, by the wise thoughtfulness of, the trustees of . his estate, is to be paid over in September next. To all intents and purposes, it is available at once. There have been other gifts and promises by local donors. Mr. Parr has plainly spoken of the claim that may be rightly made upon the Government to give financial assistance. It may be that considerably more will have to be done in the way of local contributions. But never had an educational project sounder warrant. Education in agriculture is never a luxury; it is a prime necessity ina country such as New ZealandExpenditure on it is an investment, and an investment with sure returns. Beyond- the considerable market for foodstuffs and raw materials which the Dominion itself provides, there is an assured demand for them overseas. For many a day New Zealand must depend mainly on its rural industries ; and to do the best with them involves the most intelligent application of science. This in turn necessitates the utmost activity in producing the brains capable of directing 1 that application. This view of the matter will commend itself to the community and evoke without fail a practical response.

'• The College Council, then, may reasonably count on sufficient moneybeing Available for the establishment of its school of agriculture. Its chief task now is the formulating of a plan of action. At this point the position needs very careful survey. There seems to be a danger of regarding the university's task in too broad and vague a way. Is its task to train farmers? Is it to make expert pastoralists and agriculturalists of the students taking its courses, turning them out ready, j say, to break in virgin country and change a pumice plain into a fine farm? Some references to "an | agricultural college '' that have been made seem to have that achievement in view, and suggest a need to define the shares of work to be taken by the various educational bodies concerned. So far nobody has made a clear statement. The University College will give instruction in agricultural botany, zoology, chemistry and so on. This will need laboratory demonstration and practice as well as lecture delivery. It w ill need also some scope for experimental work under natural conditions in open spaces. But should it involve cultivating the broad acres of an experimental farm? If not, to whose care should such an experimental farm be committed? Again, how closely practical should the instruction be Should the students be taught to shear sheep and dehorn cattle, to make gates and drive a tractor? If not, whither should they turn for such instruction in this, district? Perhaps the answer is already formulated.. If

so, the public will be interested to know all about it as soon as possible. It would seem that the functions of a university college and a technical agricultural college might be mutually delimited somewhat on the lines that now separate

a university college from a normal training college in the producing of school teachers. These questions, however, are best left for the bodies concerned to settle ; they involve a very practical problem in education, and those who are to do the work should come to a clear understanding among themselves. But they should lose no . time about it, for Auckland's acres wait and Auckland's youth grows apace while administrators dally.