CHAIR OF ECONOMICS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1926, Page 11

CHAIR OF ECONOMICS

FIRST AUCKLAND PROFESSOR DR. H. BELSHAW CHOSEN. LATELY HAWERA TEACHER. The newly-established ehair of economics at Auckland University College has been filled by the appointment of Dr. Horace Belshaw, M.A. (N.Z.), Ph. D. Cantab), at present a lecturer in economics at Cambridge. There were 16 applicants for the position, which had been advertised in Great Britain and elsewhere as well as in the Dominion. The ehair was until lately combined with that of history, and was occupied by Professor J. P. Grossmann, who is now responsible for history alone. Dr. Belshaw is a New Zealander by early adoption, and has had a distinguished academic career, both here and in Britain. He is in his 29th year, having been born in Lancashire in 1898. He is married and has one child. Arriving in New Zealand as a small boy he received his earlier education in the South Island, and became a pupil teacher in Christchurch in 1914. He gained the B.A. degree at Canterbury College in 1919, and two years later the M.A. degree, with first-class honours in economics, taking first place in New Zealand. His dissertation, entitled “The Dairying Industry of New Zealand,"" was awarded 90 per cent, of marks. From 1919 to 1921 he was a master at the Ashburton and Hawera High Schools, and from 1921 to 1924 tutorial class lecturer in economics at Canterbury College, having charge of organising work first in Westland and afterwards in South Canterbury. In 1924 Dr. Belshaw was awarded one of the travelling scholarships provided by the shipping companies, and proceeded to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he became a research student. He won the Sir Thomas Gresham Studentship, granted by the college, in 1925, and in May, 1926, he obtained a degree of doctor of philosophy with a dissertation entitled “Agricultural Fluctuations, a Study of Problems Arising out of Economic Instability in Agricultural Industries.” He was then appointed for a year to a lectureship in economics, with the right of choosing the subject of his course of lectures. The subject he chose was, “The Economics of Agriculture. - ’ ' Dr. Belshaw holds the New Zealand teacher’s A certificate. In addition to the theses mentioned, he is the author of an essay, “How to Bring Peace and Prosperity to Europe Through International Co operation,” which gai ed him first place among the entrants from outside the United Kingdom in the British Peace Award' competition of 1924. He collaborated with Professor J. B. Conliffe, of Canterbury College, in “A Brief Survey of Rural Credit in New Zealand,” read before the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and has contributed articles to the Economic Journal and other publications.