THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19722, 13 December 1926, Page 8

THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

The news that the Government has completed the purchase of the Batchelor Estate, near Palmerston North, will be welcomed by the very many people who believe that the need for establishment of the proposed New Zealand Agricultural College is urgent. The Government has acquired something over 800 acres at a cost of £6O an acre. Its present plan is to establish a school of dairying on the property, but that of course will only require a small portion of the available acreage. There will be ample room for other developments as soon as the necessary legislation is passed.

It will be remembered that the Government’s original intention was to establish a complete agricultural college, but a change was brought about during the dyifig hours of the last session of Parliament through opposition on the part of Canterbury. The governors of Canterbury Agricultural College offered to hand over that institution to the Government if the North Island proposal were held up, and Mr Coates in his sporting way agreed to modify his plans and take time to go into the matter. However, it is the opinion of a good many people that, as Mr. W. B. Mathieson put it at the farmers’ meeting last week, the Canterbury people have only been putting up a bluff and the Government would be wise to push ahead with the larger scheme. The Canterbury institution, Lincoln College, has done so little in the past that its plea for better equipment is certainly justified. It has never performed the work of a university agricultural college, and it should cither be abolished or made capable of turning out agricultural leaders and research workers. But that, is not to say that Lincoln College could become an efficient substitute for the proposed New Zealand Agricultural College. The New Zealand institution must be placed where it can adequately serve the needs of the Dominion, and that means that it must be in an accessible part of the North Island. It is to be hoped that the Government will fully realise that fact and will hasten to make good use of the valuable property it has now acquired.