AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 13

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

MEETING OF COUNCIL. WELLINGTON, February 1. The first meeting of the New Zealand Agricultural College Council was held today, there being present Sir James Wilson, the Hon. G. Fowlds, Messrs A. Morton, T. U. Wells, P. Levi, R. A. Rodger, H. B. Stuckey, N. Francis, and Professor Hunter. The Hon. O. J. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture, in welcoming the members, said agricultural education had been talked of in New Zealand for manyyears past, but it was only in the last session of Parliament that the Government finally decided to set up the Agricultural College. However, the delay which had, occurred would enable the council to benefit from the, experience of ; other countries. The farmer, had always insisted that his particular type of education

Should be eminently practical, as distinct from academic. The Act under which The new college was constituted was very wide in its scope, and provision was made for technical and research work. There was also the question of co-ordinating the work of the college with other departments of the Government. In order to avoid overlapping any recommendations which the council made ou these and other questions would receive the earnest consideration of the Government. No half measures, said the Minister, were wanted by the Government in connection with agricultural education. They wanted the education to be of a high class. He hoped that such arrangements would be made with Lincoln College as would be in the best interests of all, and especially of farming generally throughout the Dominion. It was admitted that a great deal of research work was wanted in connection with' agriculture. He thought the council would find that the farm and property near Palmerston North would be eminently suitable for the purposes of the college. He concluded by wishing every success to the college in its great undertaking. On the motion of Sir James Wilson, seconded by Mr P. Levi, the Hon. George Fowlds was elected first chairman of the council of the college. The Hon. G. Fowlds, fii thanking members for the honour they had conferred

upon him, said he recognised it as a distinction to be the first chairman of what it was now recognised would be "the greatest educational institution in New Zealand.” He accepted the office, not because of the honour attaching to it, because he had got oast the stage when he desired to hold office purely for the honour attaching to it, but he accepted it simply because he believed that in its initial stages he could render some useful service. In the year 1924 he had very special opportunities of studying closely the organisation and working of agricultural colleges in the United States and Canada, and, as a result of the information -then gained, he felt. that he could be of service in the initiatory work of the New Zealand Agricultural College. On the purely material side they all knew that there were a great many problems awaiting solution—problems affecting the primary productions of this country. The solution of those problems would mean the addition of hundreds of thousands of pounds, and, in some cases, perhaps, millions per annum to the value of the primary productions of the country. The members of the council could assure the Minister that they would endeavour to work in complete harmony with the officers of the Department of Agriculture. By means of its branch of scientific research he thought the college would become, as it were, the focussing centre for the development of the thought of those engaged in our primary industries. That was in connection with scientific methods of production and all the processes of agriculture. He hoped that before many years were past there would be established in connection with the college a department of domestic science. The council would be prepared in due course to confer with the Governors of Lincoln College as to the best means to adopt to avoid overlapping or waste of effort. It ■would be some years before the college cot into its stride, and before its real benefits became manifest..