UNIVERSITY INQUIRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19068, 13 July 1925, Page 10

UNIVERSITY INQUIRY.

EVIDENCE AT CHRISTCHURCH. CHAIR OF LAW WANTED. % AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. CLAIMS OF LINCOLN COLLEGE. [nr TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, Saturday. Afc the sitting of the University Commission to-day, Mr. J. Nicol, president of the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Technical Schools' Association, said there should be in New Zealand a diploma or degree in art, equivalent to, say, Associatcship of the Royal College of Art. Persons who could not afford to spend three years in England were precluded from attaining a recognised standard in art. The law students demand for a chair of law at Canterbury College was emphasised by Mr. A. C. Brassington, president of the Canterbury College Law Students' Society. He said the college library had so few law books that as a factor in education of a law student it was quite negligible. The inadequacy was reflected to some extent in the fact that only three students had taken the Master of Laws degree at Canterbury College. Mr. R, E. Alexander, director of the Agricultural College at Lincoln, said there was no true understanding in New Zealand of what agricultural education was. The University Senate did not understand the question. It had no means of knowing as it was only an examining body, and it had no powers to specify equipment, standard of teaching or teachers; As a result, the governing body of a teaching institution that spent its substance pestering the Government with wire-pulling and parochialisms, was likely 4 to get sympathy and help from the Government. A teaching institution should be above political influence. It should be a national institution. The New Zealand University should bo the body through which Government grants were made. A special committee composed of men of wide outlook and attainments could be set up to deal with agricultural questions. The university at present could not recommend help. The course adopted was to apply directly to Parliament and grants were made more as a result of influence and wire-pulling than on true necessity from the Dominion point of view. Lincoln College had practically the whole of the equipment. All it asked for was grants for new laboratories and farm buildings and, if necessary, additional living accommodation and additions to staff. Those additions to Lincoln College would cost only a fraction of the sum required for a new institution. No body at present was responsible for research, said Mr. Alexander. There was no organisation or direction. Anything done was the result of individual effort. That work could be taken in hand by the university through a committee or a research board could be set up t-o organise the work for the Dominion. Local problems should be dealt with by local stations, but genoral principles and general problems at suitable oentres. _ Lincoln College was willing to do that if it was helped. Only a small annual donation was necessary to extend the work at that college. If scholarships were established, the holders could assist in research work.