ON THE LAND

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1930, Page 2

ON THE LAND

ADVICE: TO LORD BLED! SLOE

CHRISTCHURCH, duly 13

“There is no occupation in the world more worthy of pursuit than farming. New Zealand'has a great agricultural and pastoral future, greater, perhaps, than any other part of the Empire, due partly to her climate, partly to the potentialities of tile l soil, and partly to the willingness to imbide hew knowledge as far as .the fanning community can bo convinced that it is of economic value.”

These words were spoken by his Excellency the Governor-General, Lord I'iedisloe, in the course of an address Hive red to the students of Lincoln College on his visit there yesterday. GOLD MEDAL FOR COLLEGE. After expressing his regret at not ’'■ring able to attend the jubilee celebrations of the college this month, Lord Bledisloe said that he had formerly been chairman of the Board of Governors of the Royal Agriculture allege, and one of the most' treasure! possessions was a gold medal of the college. To-day he proposed to .do tw~ tilings. The first was to ask the indents to celebrate his coming with c half-holiday, the .second was to present a go’d medal to be awarded as the Board of Governors and the director inieht decide, Possibly it might be awarded from time to time to exstudents who appeared to have justified most the education which they had received at the college.

He was well conversant with all the agricultural colleges in Great Britain, and also with many in Europe and 'morion, and it seemed to him that •ha Lincoln students had two excentionnl advantages, apart from the de-'ia-btful climate. One was that tlwv themselves conducted practical work nn the farm which was attached to the college. No student was fullv trained unless lie had done practical work either on a farm or at a college, whe other advantage was that they were in close contact with researcli work such as in connection with the ascertaining of the quality of wheat, the constitution and improvement of of pastures, the improvement of sheen and nig breeding, and lastly, with economics. Scientists might teach them nil they knew, but unless they knew something about economics they were unlikely to succeed as practical fanners, SCIENCE AND PR ACTICE. Lord Bledisloe said he wished to offer the students a few words of advice. They must not separate science and practice and must not consider one as socially superior to the other. A man using his hands was doing as useful and noble work as one engaged in science. Secondly, they should not be slovenly either in person or in surroundings for that would lead to slovenly farming, If they had good implements they should not leave them out in the rain. As teachers and researcli workers, if they wanted to convince farmers they must speak to them i n terms of pounds, shillings and pence. Also, they* should not talk » technical and scientific jargon to the ordinary farmer. For 30 years he had been up against 'this factor; that highly scientific people could not get down to plain English. Above all, they must work as a team and not keep their different activities isolated. Aluch public money was being wasted in some countries owing to the fact that scientific men were pushing along on various lines without proper co-operation. CATERING FOR BRITAIN. The future of New Zealand as regards farming depended largely on the students. They must provide, first of all, what their customers wanted. Great Britain was New Zealand’s main customer and would probably continue so, but it would have to produce what she wanted and not what it thought she ought to. New Zealand needed to produce the best and to keep it ununiformly good; otherwise competitors would oust it. At present the British market was, not altogether satisfied with some of the cheese coming from New Zealand and there was a clanger of the whole of the country’s product being condemned through the inferiority of some. His Excellency said he had been one of the largest pig breeders in the Old Country. There was a necessity for such lines in farming, especially in dairy farming, to help when prices were low. The British public was getting more and more fond of baron, but it did not want bacon that melted away in fat. New Zealand could not give them too much lean. EXTRAORDINARY FORESIGHT. In concluding his address the Gov-ernor-General said that it was a great tribute to the pioneers who founded Hm college soon after Canterbury was settled that they had bad the extraordiniarv foresight to realise that New Zealand would need agricultural education based on science. He wished the students all possible success.