AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 84, 26 August 1912, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

. WAIRAKAPA'S CLAIMS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. ' Wellington, Last Night. A deputation which was representative of various local bodies in the Wairarapa district, headed by Mr. W. C. Buchanan, M.P., waited on tho Prime Minister, in his capacity as Minister for Agriculture, and urged the claims of Wairarapa as a site for the Agricultural College which the Government is to establish in the North Island. The deputation contended that Wairarapa is entirely adapted for such an institution by reason of the extent and variety of" its products, and the fact that within a comparatively small area all varieties of agricultural activity are being carried on. It was also urged that in the past the Government had not given sufficient consideration to the necessity of applying science to agriculture. Wairarapa, it was contended, had prior claim to its being ge* lected as a site for the proposed institution. The headmaster of the technical school (Mr. W. H. Jackson), who is also 1 a member of the Masterton Lands Trust, stated that if Wairarapa was selected! scholarships would be given by eighty county councils in the district, the Masterton and Wairarapa A. & P. Associations, the Pahiatua A. & P. Association, Greytown Lands Trust, and a number of settlers. The Prime Minister said that he had been very glad to notice that the proposal to establish agricultural colleges in the North Island had met with general approval. He agreed that very little had been done in the past in the direction of applying science to agriculture. That was a defect they proposed to remedy in the near future. A very great deal of preliminary work had to be done in connection with the proposal. First of all ,he had to get the consent of Parliament. He had no doubt that | consent would be forthcoming. Then he i would have to consult his Ministers a» | to ways and means, and in the recess, he supposed, the responsibility would fall upon him of selecting a site for the college. In that connection the claims of Wairarapa would receive due consideration. He would not make any promise unl.il lie had visited the different suggested sites and seen them for himself. Mr. Buchanan asked whether an offer of monetary assistance would induce the Government to favorably consider the proposal. The Prime Minister said that any such ' proposal would be considered by the Government. Already he had been asked ( if £20,000 would make any difference in i the Government's selection of a site,