University Facilities

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 22, 27 January 1937, Page 9 (Supplement)

University Facilities

NEW ZEALAND BEHIND OTHER COUNTRIES. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. “ Some university teachers on returning to New Zealand make unfavourable comparisons between university facilities here and in other countries. I regret to have to endorse those comparisons,” said Professor H. Belshaw, Professor of Economics at Auckland University College, when interviewed on the Niagara this morning. Professor Belshaw left the Dominion in December, 1934, with a Rockefeller Fellowship and spent nine months in the Unite*! States, making close contact with Cornell, Harvard, New York, Washington, and California Universities.

“In tho matter of university staffing, libraries, finance, accommodaton* and equipment, New Zealand compares unfavourably indeed with practically every institution I visited,” he said. “I visited no universities in which the ratio of staff to students was as low as in New Zealand. 1 feel very strongly that our policy in New Zealand should be directed to strengthening existing departments in every way rather than extending new departments and entering into new fields. “By way of illustrating the provision that is made for somo iustitutom 4. might mention the college of agriculture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York State. This college has an annual grant of over 2,000,000 dollars from the New York State and Federal Governments. The college is responsible for expansion work in agricultural districts, but even if allowance as made for this I should imagine the amount left over for university purposes would be greater than the amount provided for the whole of the university work in New Zealand. Tho department of agricultural economics, which is one section of tho college of agriculture, has a much larger stall and better equipment than Auckland. “Despite the difficult Dominion conditions, my general impression is that the standard reached by students of economics in New Zealand compares very favourably with the majority ot American institutions.”