APPOINTMENT FOR RHODES SCHOLAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5305, 18 January 1947, Page 7

APPOINTMENT FOR RHODES SCHOLAR

NEW ZEALANDER CHOSEN ! 1 CHAIR OF AGRICULTURE AT LONDON UNIY1ESRSITY Mr. M. M. Oooper, B.Agr.Sc., B.Litt. (Oxon), Diploma Rural ' Economy (Oxon), head of the dairy husbandry department of Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North, has been appoixited to the Chair of Agriculture recently established by the University of London, and tenable at Wye College (fol'merly known as the SouthEasterh Agricultural College), near Ashford, Kent, according to a Press Associatiorl cablegranr from London. - Mr. C-ooper, a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar still in his early thirtiqs, has gained this distinction against international competition. In addition to his acadenxic qualifications and wide experience of farming in New Zealand and Great Britain, he has had a distinguished Rugby foothall career, having represented Manawatu and Wellington, captained the Oxford University team against Cambridge, and won honours as a Scottish in'ternational player. Though he has carried out much research into dairying and pig-rearing problems, Mr. Gooper's main interest is in agricultural education. He feels it is important that all New Zealanders should have an appreciation of the fundamentals of agriculture, so that there may be a dynamic outloOk on farming, and not that of rule of thurnb. All urban dwellers should haye some appreciation of the agricultural mode of living, a subject whieh should, he contends, be taught as a cultural one in New Zealand university colleges, so that persons of high education may have an opportunity of understanding the real social, though not necessarily the technical, problems of farmers. He has written a booklet on dairy farming for the Army Educational Welfare Service, and was a joint author of tihe Recently jpub|ishe)d' "Prinjcipleis of Animal Production." Besides being a University Examiner in Dairy Husbandi'y, he is a foundation member of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, and a member of the Dairy Science Association and the Wellington District Pig Council. Buildings 500 Years Old Wye College, for which Mr. Cooper will leave New Zealand next winter, is somewhat similar to New Zealand's Massey College, where Mr. Cooper graduated, in -that research is carried out coincidental with the training of students for the management of larms and for university degrees'leading to professional appointments in agriculture and horticulture. Wye College was founded in 1894 by the late Sir Daniel Hall, K.C.B., one of the great figures of British agriculture, who in 1902 became the first director of Rothawsteam Experimental Station. The college, which was closed during the last war, still uses some of the o'OO-year-old stone buildings completed in 1447, following a licence granted by Henry the Sixth for the establishment of a College of Secular Priests. Since its re-opening in October, 1945, the college has abandoned its diploma courses and, with. a student roll of overdOO, is concentrating on preparing candidates for agricultural and horticultural degrees. It is hoped eventually to accbmmodate about 200 students. With the pre-war college, some buildings of which have had to be reconstructed after bomb damage, has been amalgamated the former Swanley Horticultural College. The new principal at Wye is Mr. Dunstan Skilbeck, M.A., who before the war was university lecturer in agriculture at the School of Agriculture at Oxford and also director of St. John's College Farm. During the war he saw service as a wing commander both at home and in the Middle East, and from T940 to 1945 was Assistant Director of Agricultural Production at the Middle East Supply Centre. Other principals at Wye College have been Sir Daniel Hall (1894-1902), Mr. J. R. Dunstan, M.A. (1902-22), and R. M. Wilson, B.Sc. (1922-40). Former students are acting im agricultural capacities in most countries of the world. "Interpreting New Zealand" When asked his views on the general question of New Zealand-trained men accepting overseas positions because of laclc pf opportunities for further advancement in the Dominion, Mr. Cooper said he regai-ded his new appointment as a means of helping New Zealand graduates and other students going* overseas for further study. He would aim at developing the work at Wye in a way which would bring out its New Zealand implications, such as grassland management; and he was •hopeful of interpreting, in an ambassadorial way, the New Zealand point of view to English agriculture, through the writing of articles and. by other means. Similarly, there were avenues for assisting agriculture in general through interpretation of British farming to New Zealanders. The scores ' of former students of Wye College who had accepted positions t|jiroug'houit the wtorld ijncluded six who had come to New Zealand.

Mr. Cooper comes of farming stock. He attended the Havelock North School and the Napier Boys' High School, and became increasingly determined follow a veterinary or agricultural cai'eer. With this end in view he completed his intermediate examination at Victoria University College in 1929, and spent the next four years at Massey College, where he graduated and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in the' first year in which the agricultural colleges were invited to forward nominations. October, 1934, saw Mr. Cooper leave for Oxford, where he studied; in the School of Rhfal Economy under Professor Scott-Watson, now head of the Advisory Service , in'the British Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Dr. K. A. H. Murray, now, reetor of Lincoln College at Oxfqrd. He gained in his' first year the Diploma of Rural

Economy and later the degree of B.Litt. in agricultural economics. His research work at Oxford ineluded an investigation into the nature of the demand by British householders for New Zealand butter and cheese, and the consumers' angle on the purchase of dairy produce. This survey involved conferences with 600 householders in Oxford. While still at Oxford he was appointed to-the staff of the New Zealand Department of ScientMc and Industrial Research, on behalf of which he made a three-months' tour of the agricultural research stations of Britain before returning to New Zealand in 1937 for administrative work in animal research. After two years with the head office staff in Wellington he was, on the cutbreak of war, seconded to the Department of Agriculture as secretary to the National Council of Primary Production, which post he vacated when appointed as lecturer in dairy husbandry at Massey College in Februray, 1940. Service Overseas Periods of college lecturing were iuterspersed with territorial service until the end of 1942, when Mr. Cooper, who had done much to promote army education services in the Palmerston North district, was appointed by Major-General Weir to :be in charge of army education for the Fourth Divisior. He transferred to the 2nd N.Z.E.F. in May of 1943, going overseas with the 10th Reinforcements as a lieutenant, and serving with the 22 N.Z. Motor Battalion thx-oughout the Italian campaign, Teaching the rank of major. He wasasked by Divisional Headquarters iiu Septexnber, 1944, to establislx in Austria a canxp for the training of candidates for the Kiwi Rugby team. As a result he later left for Bx-itain with 25 men selected for the final trials, and returned to Italy when the Kiwi team coxnxnenced their' British tour. He reached New Zealand again in February, 1946, and almost immediately took up the position of head of the dairy husbandry department of Massev College.

Mr. Cooper was the first New Zealander to captain the Oxford Rugby team against Canxbridge. He was captain also against the 4935 All Blacks, and represented Scotland against* Wales and Ireland. He was selected to play against England, but an injury lcept him off the field. Earlier football prominence ineluded membership of the Manawatu rqpresentative team for^three years, and after his return to New Zealand, captaincy of the Wellington representative side in 1939, axxd the gaining of his New Zealand University Rugby Blue.