LAGGING NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1922, Page 4

LAGGING NEW ZEALAND.

Lecturing at the recent Winter Show in Auckland. Professor Burbidge pleaded the cause of agricultural education in a manner that showed vision and practical knowledge (writes the Auckland Herald). The comparisons he -gave in this respect were startling. Tn the United States, he said, there were 640 students for every million of the population. New South Wales had 100 for every million, •ind New Zealand half that proportion. The figures are a warning and a reproach to the Dominion. They tell a etory of colossal folly, the bitter fruits of which even now are to be seen on every hand. Not only is the settlement of idle lands more than ever essential. The intensive cultivation of land already occupied is required if increased production, the only possible remedy for present troubles, is to be achieved. But how many farmers and prospective settlers possess the secrets of intensive cultivation? A statement was made at Te Kuiti recently indicating that the great majority of holdings were too large, and unquestionably this is the case, a legacy, no doubt, from the long period when land speculation was inextricably hound up with agriculture to the great disadvantage of scientific cultivation The tendency must be for smaller holdings, which will mean more farmers and better farming. Scientific training, however,/still belongs to the privileged few and continue to do so until the schools and colleges rise to the national need. Each university should possess a Chair of Agriculture and every school should bring the subject to the forefront. Farm schools for 'thousands of boys are required, and the whole system made to dovetail into a national settlement policy.