CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19976, 19 June 1928, Page 11

CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT

BRITISH UNIVERSITY WORK. NEW ZEALAND SEEKS SHARE. AN APPLICATION FOR £20,000. The university colleges of New Zealand intend to make a joint application for a grant of £20,000 for library purposes from an endowment established by the late Andrew Carnegie, for assisting university education in the British Empire. Possibly further applications will follow. Reporting to the Auckland University College Council yesterday, upon the recent university conference in Wellington, (lie president, Sir George Fowlds, said it had been decided to take action in the matter of obtaining funds from the endowment. It had a capital of about £2,000,000, and Dean Russell, of Columbia University, had visited New Zealand some time ago regarding it. It appeared, said Sir George, that for 10 years or more all grants made from the fund had been secured—he would refrain from using another term which came first to his mind—by Canadian institutions. The trustees had lately realised that this state of affairs could not continue, and accordingly Dean Russell had been sent to other parts of the British Empire in order to see the nature of the university work done therer and. to acquaint college authorities with the purposes of the foundation. It had now been decided that the New Zealand colleges should at once apply jointly for a grant oi £20,000 for the extension of libraries. The proposal was that £4OOO should be allocated to each of the four university colleges, and £2OOO each to the Massey and Lincoln Agricultural Colleges. These sums would do something toward bringing the university libraries of New Zealand up to a proper standard. They would not go far, but would at least make a beginning. The question of obtaining annual grants for the extension of W.E.A. work to rural districts was also being considered. Otago University had brought forward an elaborate scheme for providing instruction in home science throughout the Dominion, but this was not likely to be pursued for the present, at any rate. More probably an application would be made for a grant of £IOOO a year for five years for the extension work of each of the four university colleges. It was recognised that the scheme would be of little practical value unless it were carried on for some years in succession. The president's report was received.