The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1924. LINCOLN COLLEGE.

Southland Times, Issue 19172, 16 February 1924, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1924. LINCOLN COLLEGE.

On Wednesday the University Senate had before it a lengthy report by Professor A. E. V. Richardson, of Melbourne, on the New Zealand degree in Agriculture, and incidentally he touched on some important aspects in connection with the course at Lincoln College. Professor Richardson’s criticism of that course seems to have been resented by the Director of Lincoln College, who in a criticism of the report displayed not a little warmth in traversing the views presented to the Senate. Mr R. F. Alexander, the Director of Lincoln College, evidently was so keen to defend the institution that he overlooked the important fact that Professor Richardson’s object was to put before the Senate the view that dexterity in farm work was not essential to the preparation for a degree in Agriculture. His report went to the root of the question in reminding the Senate that the holder of a degree in Agriculture should not be lost in the managership of a farm. Education in the higher branches of agriculture should prepare men for research work, and for teaching; the University should not aim at turning out practical farmers. Professor Richardson spoke in glowing terms of the suitability of Lincoln College, of the equipment of the institution, and of the system of training practical farmers, but this he declared to be insufficient to justify the existence of the College as a branch of the University:

Notwithstanding the advantrages which Lincoln has enjoyed, comparatively few of its former students are occupying leading positions in agriculture. Perhaps the majority of those who have passed through the college are engaged in farming pursuits and to some extent assisting in the development of agriculture by providing local illustrations of good farming methods. An agricultural college of University grade should, however, do more than turn out annually a handful of practical farmers. It should undertake systematic investigational work in those agricultural and live stock problems which affect the progressive development of the farming industry.

Professor Richardson is looking at Lincoln College as an institution of University grade and he is anxious that the production of scientific agriculturists should provide the Dominion with a body of men equipped to assist agriculture, by investigational and instructional work, not by the mere development of a limited area of land. His report has been carefully prepared, and it will serve to emphasise the point that the University’s aim is not to turn out efficient farmers,- but to lay the foundation of future developments on scientific lines. That Mr Alexander overlooked this aspect of Professor Richardson’s remarks is disclosed by one paragraph of his response. He declares that the Board of Governors of Lincoln College, , Largely composed of fanners, claims to have intimate knowledge of the requirements of farmers, and is surely more capable of deciding the qualifications and training necessary to produce agricultural instructors than those merely interested in agriculture from an academic point of view. If the object of the degree course is to .stamp men as qualified to

teach and demonstrate agriculture, then practical work is as essential as it is to the doctor, veterinarian, chemist, biologist, or engineer. If the object is to confer an easily obtained degree, then any course can be mapped out. A degree student should know how as well as why and wherefore. An agricultural specialist must be a specialist not in name only, but in experience.

Mr Alexander may suggest that Professor Richardson as a plant-breeder and an Australian, is not equipped to speak on practical farm problems, but Professor Richardson did not attempt this. What he did was to reveal 'to the University Senate that a fine institution like Lincoln College, which is teaching what the Senate requires and obtaining good results within those limits, is not ■ being used to the best advantage when “one-half of the students’ time is taken up with manual farm work.” Lincoln College should be the chief promoter of agricultural knowledge in the Dominion, and this can be made a fact only if the institution in addition to training farmers also develops to the fullest extent the training of the degree student to take his place in the advancement of agricultural science ip this country.