AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Age, 30 July 1925, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

PROFESSOR PEREN’S EVIDENCE. SCHOOL FOR MASTEBTON MENTIONED. Giving evidence, before the Education Commission in Wellington yesterday, Professor G. 8. PerAi, Professor of Agriculture at Victoria University' College, considered that to provide the initial buildings and equipment for a School of Agriculture in the North Island a sum of at least £45,000 would be required, and, as the Minister of Education had publicly stated, probably nearer £60,000. In addition an annual maintenance grant of £7500 would be required. If two schools in the North Island were to be properly equipped simultaneously, and Canterbury Agricultural College was to be given a special grant, a very largo sum would have to be found.

“It is generally recognised,” he said, “that the field for the professional employment of graduates is small, and that 12 to 15 per annum is the most that the country can absorb for some time to come. The only field, of employment, apart from farming for themselves, are the Departments of Agriculture and Education, and positions with commercial firms, and the extent of these is not very difficult to assess. There are already 12 students at the School of Agriculture, Victoria College, all of whom are working for a degree, and present indications point to about 12 coming up next year. The maximum annual requirement of the country can, and will be catered for, and on no grounds can the establishment of on additional school at Auckland be ' justified. “Unfortunately a large number of people appear to be under the impression that a School of Agriculture is at the- same time a fully equipped research station, and their insistence on thp need for a school in their particular district has been largely prompted by their anxiety to have their troubles solved. While I do not suggest that tho peliey of the Government will be weak, yet to the most casual student of the situation the indications are far from reassuring. The action of rival interests has obviously brought polities into the question, and one cannot help feeling that an attempt may be made to satisfy all the claimants rather than to adopt a sound constructive policy which only considered the welfare of agriculture. The folly of the continued weakness in the agricultural organisation of the country is now apparent to all. The rural population is now fully alive to the position and extremely keen to remedy the defect.”

Professor Peren has stated elsewhere that the aim of Victoria College is to establish at Masterton a central institution for agricultural education. The courses will comprise a two-year course for men who wish to farm for themselves, special short courses in such subjects as horticulture, poultry, bee-keeping, etc., refresher courses for teachers, “farmers’ weeks,” etc., and at the same time it is hoped that the school will be,so equipped and staffed that it wiR be able to offer a really good degree course.