7

H. —'29b

It was, however, equally clear from the evidence that a School of Agriculture has other important functions to perform besides that of training experts in agricultural science, epecially in a new country as yet incompletely brought into profitable agricultural and pastoral conditions. All witnesses, particularly those actually engaged in farming or directly connected with the industry, stressed the urgent necessity for investigational work on the many practical problems which vex the farmer in every branch of his business. The Board realized, therefore, that the establishment of professorships in agriculture in the several University Colleges, and the development of research stations, such as Cawthron Institute in Nelson, would have, apart altogether from the question of training undergraduates, direct results of the utmost value to the farmers and consequently to the whole Dominion, while, indirectly, the status of the profession of farming would naturally be raised, and a higher regard for the life and calling of the farmer would be fostered in the community. Bearing these matters in mind, the Board hopes that due encouragement will be given, in the University Colleges and other research stations, to the training of research students, especially on the agricultural side, and that it may be found possible to provide", in connection with one or more of these institutions, special facilities for post-graduate training in agricultural research work. As regards the major question of what new provision should be made at the present time for training students desirous of taking a University degree in agriculture, the Board, while fully appreciating the difficulty created by the recognition by the New Zealand University Senate of three University Schools of Agriculture, is clearly and definitely of opinion that one fully equipped and fully staffed residential College of Agriculture will be sufficient for many years to come, and that such an institution should, when established, be placed in a central position in New Zealand. The Board does not recommend that such a complete and fully equipped institution be established immediately, for reasons given in reply to question (/). The Board recommends that, in the meantime, in order to provide for the efficient training of students of agriculture attending Victoria College, the Biological and Chemical Laboratories of the Agricultural Department should be transferred to Wa.llaceville, and that they and the existing Veterinary Laboratory and the proposed Dairy Research Laboratory should be made available for the instruction of students, to the mutual advantage of the students and the Department ; further, that class-rooms and students' laboratories should be provided there for the purposes of the students' training. The Board further recommends that the Ruakura Farm Training College be made available for co-operation with the Auckland University College in assisting in the provision of instructional facilities for students. Question (5.) —What would be the probable number of students of the kind mentioned in (a) (i) that could be utilized in New Zealand after taking their degrees ? It was shown in evidence that while the number of agricultural instructors could be largely increased in the Departments of Education and Agriculture with advantages which would probably fully justify the additional expense, it was unlikely that the demand within and without the service for experts in agricultural science would for some years warrant a large output of qualified men. In Melbourne, for example, the total number of students in the agricultural degree course is about thirty, and the demand is so small that the Government has to guarantee positions in order to get students to take the course. In Sydney University the numbers are approximately the same. In America, on the other hand, as Professor Richardson, of Melbourne University, has pointed out, the Agricultural Colleges have flourished greatly during the last twenty years, after a history of forty years of failure. Apparently the American colleges became a success when the farming community found itself compelled to take full advantage of scientific training made available to the individual farmer by the extension work of the colleges ; and it may be doubted, in view of the experience of Melbourne and Sydney, and of America in its earlier development, whether such a condition yet obtains in this Dominion, or is likely to arise for some years. In the meantime the evidence indictates that if ten graduates were turned out yearly when the arrangements suggested by the Board were in fall workingorder, this is about the maximum number that could be employed as teachers, instructors, or research workers. Some doubtless would be otherwise absorbed by the industries of the land, and there is a wide scope in New Zealand for the scientifically trained agriculturist. With a view to encouraging students to proceed to a degree in agriculture, the Board is of opinion that as far as possible only men with a degree in agriculture should be appointed as teachers of agricultural science in schools or as field instructors. There is an insistent demand on behalf of the farmers for field instructors, and although it was stated in evidence that a man who had just obtained his degree was not in most cases immediately suited to the position, and that more experienced men were needed, yet it is felt by the Board that a University degree should be as essential for such teachers and instructors as matriculation is for entering the University. The young graduate in agriculture, like the young doctor who takes a position in a hospital by way of novitiate in his profession, must, however, serve his apprenticeship to the business of agriculture after providing himself with the essential intellectual equipment. While, therefore, sufficient employment hardly exists at present for ten new graduates per annum, we think that a demand would arise when Government Departments, Education Boards, and the public became educated to employing men who had taken degrees. Dr. Lotsy stated that in Holland the Doctors of Agriculture are chiefly engaged in farming, and no doubt in time the same would come to pass in New Zealand. He also stated that any teacher in primary or high schools who took the special teachers' diploma in agriculture was paid an additional salary whether he was engaged in teaching agriculture or other subjects ; and that in consequence nearly all male teachers made it their business to get the diploma in agriculture. The Board thinks that a similar provision might well be made in New Zealand.