THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1925. A SENSIBLE PLEA.

Wairarapa Age, 16 March 1925, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1925. A SENSIBLE PLEA.

The visit of the Agricultural Education Commission to the Wairarapa on Saturday is a matter for great satisfaction to farmers’ organisations in this district. The Wairarapa has as much right as any district in New Zealand to ask that the agricultural college should be established here; but we are glad' to note that those who met and entertained the Commission on Saturday made no such demand. Whereas the Commission has been bombarded in other districts by a noisy succession of deputations bang ing the big drum and demanding in a loud voice that their district and no other was worthy to be considered, Wairarapa took quite a different attitude. The general feeling in this district is that whatever is done in connection with the Buchanan Chair ot Agriculture shotild be done well. Instead of establishing a number of agricultural schools all over the country and starving most of them for lack of funds/so that no one of them may do the very best work, the opinion is held here that there should be only one school for a start and that that school should be denied nothing that is necessary to its efiiciency. The whole future success of agricultural education depends upon what is now done being done so. as to produce satisfactory results. It is, therefore, highly desirable that no mistake should be made in deciding upon the location of the first agricultural college in the North island, in which we are ho keenly interested. Those who met the members of the Commission on Saturday did right in setting forth the situj ation and the history of the Taratahi j training farm. They stressed the very i important point of its proximity to | Wellington, and the most important !' condition of its being in the centre of perhaps the best stock district in New Zealand. They were also wise to state that the land at Taratahi is of varied richness and that much of it requires thoughtful care to make it most productive, That in our opinion is another most important factor in its favour, for it would be a fatal mistake to teach our young men to farm on land of first, or even better than average, quality. But, having pointed out these facts without exaggeration, Mr Duncan McGregor and his colleagues ' declared with absolute unanimity that ' the Wairarapa did not desire in any , way to influence the decision of the Commission. The members, of the Board of Agriculture have been selected for that post from amongst the best farmers in every district of New Zealand. They are men with the interests of the subject at heart; with a much wider knowledge of agriculture and its needs than the average farmer in any district can possess; and with no axe to grind. They have associated with them representatives of the Departments and of the University. There can be no question that they will do what they consider right "in the interests of the whole country, and the Wairarapa representatives who spoke on Saturday were making no sacrifice in promising that they would accept in a proper spirit the verdict of the Commission. More than that, we believe that when the decision of the Commission is known

the Wairarapa farmers will respond ’ with enthusiasm to the appeal of Sir ' James Wilson that they should rally round the school wherever it is, and help to make it a success.