NATIONAL EFFICIENCY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21032, 22 May 1930, Page 7

NATIONAL EFFICIENCY.

DETERMINED BY EDUCATION. MR J. A. HANAN’S VIEWS, THE NEED FOR PRODUCERS. Tire extent to which national efficiency, upon which the future of New Zealand rests, is dependent on the scientific education and technical training of the people was one of the aspects of the educational requirements of the Dominion which was stressed by the prochancellor of the University of New Zealand (Mr J. A. Hanan, M.L.C.), in his address to the meeting of the Senate, of the University of New Zealand in Wellington. “National efficiency.” said Mr Har.an, “ must be our goal, hence we must give more attention to industrial, technical, and scientific education—an education that will bring to bear the most advanced skill and knowledge upon all forms of industry and commerce so that the farmer, the manufacturer, the artisan, and all workers (manual and brain) will be thoroughly trained for their calling. Scientific training becomes increasingly valuable to the community as civilisation proceeds and the forces of nature pass more under man’s control. To secure an adequate supply of. scientifically trained men should be the aim and object of an enlightened State, and all those who are entrusted with the direction and management of public or private services in New Zealand. “ It was becoming now more generally recognised that the wealth of a nation depended less on the possession of great national resources than on the ability and activity of the men who exploit them,” continued the speaker. “Hence the demand for men who had the necessary high qualifications for assisting, directing, or producing new wealth, which was so essential to national progress, A good practical and scientific education and training would greatly assist to secure that high degree of skill which, supported by zeal and industry, would achieve economic success. Scientific production and scientific commerce had become world-wide. It therefore followed that it was trained, scientific ability and diligent work.that would in the main, determine success. HUMAN LABOUR AND MACHINERY. . “In New. Zealand, as in other progressive countries, human, labour in agriculture had been to a great extent supplemented by machinery. As the productive power of a farm worker continued to increase, such worker would continue to be a declining power in the community, or in other words, farming would require the labour of a continuously diminishing proportion of the community. Writing on this subject, a high authority explained that increased power of production from the land was the combined result of several contributing agencies, such ns the substitution, of human labour by machinery, the hybridisation and careful selection: of food grains, leading to. the production of higher. quality, of quicker maturing, and to the use of chemical fertilisers, the improvement in breeding of farm animals, and the general improvement of farming methods as the result of scientific research and experience. There was no doubt that as the rural worker was being relieved of much of the hard work and drudgery associated with farming operations, he would become more # of a skilled mechanic and efficient machine-worker. Mr Henry. Ford went so far as to predict that in the near future the cultivation of the soil would be so expedited by machinery that farming would be a part-time job, with the agricultural labourer filling in his time in suitable factories established in rural areas. VICTORY OR DEFEAT. “Those who are competent to express reliable views on the subject,” said Mr Hanan, “ sttess the opinion that the country that fails to keep up with its competitors in work of intensive cultivation, the extended use of machinery, and the application of science to agriculture, will be forced out of the market because of the high cost of production. The countries which will supply the world’s markets for foods will be those which can produce foods of the best quality at the lowest coat, and at the same time employ labour in agriculture more profitably than in other countries. I leave this topic with the remark that it makes little addition to the strength of a nation that some of the people have the highest learning if the masses have not a love and capacity for growing and producing things.”