THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1927. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19699, 27 July 1927, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1927. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

According to his promise of last year, the Prime Minister has introduced legislation designed to put an end to the controversy about the relative status of the North Island and Lincoln Agricultural Colleges. The legislation is twofold. By one bill it is proposed to take from the North Island college its preeminence as the Dominion's centre of higher education in agriculture. This withdrawal of supremacy is signalised by the change of name from "The New Zealand Agricultural College" to "The Massey Agricultural College.'' By the other bill, Lincoln College is empowered to grant diplomas ranking with those given at the North Island institution. In these main provisions oE the amending legislation there is presented a compromise favouring the position taken up by the more reasonable of the advocates for safeguarding the status of Lincoln. The case for establishing at Lincoln the Dominion's main institution has never been viewed seriously by any but the extremists among the southern opponents of the Palmerston North project. It was manifestly too weak to win approval by those cognisant of the whole Dominion's needs.. On the other hand, the supporters of the North Island's claim on facilities for agricultural education of university grade have been favourable to an increase of Lincoln's facilities. There should consequently be no disposition on their part to quarrel with an. arrangement that makes for Lincoln's real efficiency, although they may doubt the wisdom of giving to two institutions equal status in granting diplomas. Of institutions for teaching and research there cannot be too many, providing always that there can be found adequate financial means for efficient work in them all. v. The compromise now reached should put an end to the hindering delays that have hampered a development long needed.- After all, it is the work that counts, and the organisation of full opportunities for it is of much more importance than the relative status ,of the diplomas granted by this or that institution. On this ground, the financial provisions of the amending legislation that seeks to give Lincoln an increased opportunity for research should be as welcome in the North as they will doubtless be to Canter- j bury. There is an unquestioned need, in the South .for thoroughly scientific investigation of problems relating to region's arable lands. In such investigation lies a possibility of the whole Dominion's profit, and its fostering is to be hailed accordingly. It is to be supposed also that, with the passage of these bills, the governing authorities of the North Island college will be at liberty to carry out a full programme of agricultural education. There seemed to be at one time the likelihood that the strenuous advocacy of the claims of Lincoln College might result in a limitation of the woirk of the new college to dairy science chiefly, if not exclu-1 sively. Such a limitation would have been very prejudicial to the j service of the latter. It is true j that the dairying industry is mainly I located in the North Island, and that therefore dairy science has a special interest and value for its farming community. But this island has considerable possibilities in its arable lands, even those that hitherto have been regarded generally as incapable of profitable development. Investigation of these has already proceeded to a promising extent. It will be for the North Island college to prosecute this research to the utmost *, and liberty to carry out a full programme, covering strictly agricultural as well as pastoral work, seems to be implied in the legislation now introduced.

What is proposed is not altogether in keeping with the recommendations of the different commissions that have reported on education in agriculture, for they have favoured the establishment of one supreme degree-granting institution to serve the whole Dominion at its present stage of agricultural development. It may even be said that the proposals do not harmonise with the anticipations of the two North Island university colleges when they agreed to pool their bequests for education in agriculture, in the interests of the Dominion rather than of themselves. The Prime Minister's admission that he would rather have seen one college than two indicates a point of view that many others may feel disposed to take. Yet there are reasons for dissenting, if* the work to be done, rather than the relative degree-granting status, is made the first consideration. There has been urged in time past, with much force, that the ideal arrangement would be an agricultural school affiliated to each of the dfour university colleges. The arrangement now in view approximates fairly closely to that ideal: Canterbu/y College is to have Lincoln so affiliated with it, and the Auckland and Wellington Colleges are to be jointly served by the North Island college, attendance at it to be deemed attendance at either, of them for all statutory purposes. In the circumstances, a workable arrangement, seems to have been reached, and this is what matters moat in the urgent ne.ed to get good work •