AGRICULTURE COLLEGE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 19897, 15 September 1913, Page 5

AGRICULTURE COLLEGE.

MR. NEWMAN'S RECOMMEN-

DATIONS

(Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON. September 12

Mr. E. Newman (Rangitikei), who was sent to New South Wales to inspect the Hawkesbury College, to-day presented his report with recommendations for the course to be followed in the establishment of an Agricultural College inNew Zealand. "Detailing at length tho system obtaining at Hawkesbury," Mr. Newman says, "the conditions, of course, are very different in New Zealand from what they are in Australia, and this has to be remembered when the question of organising a system of instruction at a College is determined. For many years, perhaps for all time, the bulk of * New Zealand farmers will be pastoralists, not agricultural farmers, and to these men while an intelligent knowledge of tho science of agriculture is valuable, still the practical work such fs is taught at Hawkesbury would be of even greater use, I take it, that our aim in New Zealand should be to provide an education for young men who .are either going on to agricultural farms or to take up bush farming, and for the latter the practical training of Hawkesbury would be valuable." A young man who can put up a good fence, build {•■ house, kill and dress a bullock, pig or .sheep, measure up tanks, do cor>creto work, and has even an clementr.rv knowledge of surveying, and who in addition to this lias a practical knowledge- of the points of horses, cattle, sheep and pigs, and been trained for three years to ?. system of keeping accurate books by which he can determine tlif profit or loss from the breeding of any of these animals, is well equipped.to farm land profitably aiij where, but in addition to this, as has been shown at Hawesbury, such a Col lego performs splendid service for the country in providing instruction in win tor and summer school camps, and so en.

"Bearing all these things in mind, i think it is safe to say that our Colleges should be as central as possible in their situations, should be near a railway f,tation, should be about 1000 acres in extent, and should consist of mixed Qualities of soil, and not too fertile. I have no hesitation in recommending that the lines adopted at Hawesbury be followed as rlnsely as the conditions will ncrm.'t. As a practical farmer myself. I appreciate thoroughly the enormous' advantages a young man would have who hid been trained as Hawosbury fls compared with the man who had not been so trained.

"Tf the Government decide to follow Ibis course. I would suggest that teachers trained .it Haweshury, othpr qaulifieatious being equal, should foe given preference for appointment."

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