13

H.—29b

(2.) That, in the meantime — (a.) Provision should be made for the training of degree students by erecting laboratories and class-rooms at Wallaceville in connection with Victoria College, at a cost of some £15,000, and by transferring to the same site the Biological and Chemical Laboratories of the Agriculture Department, so that they and the existing Veterinary Laboratory and the proposed Dairy Research Laboratory, together with the expert staff, should be available in connection with the instruction of students, to the mutual advantage of the students and the Department: (b.) The Ruakura Farm Training College be made available for co-operation with the Auckland University College : (c.) Provision be made for accommodating additional students at Lincoln College by way of laboratories, class-rooms, and hostel accommodation ; that a grant of £20,000 be made by the Government for this purpose ; also that an additional grant of £500 per annum be paid to Lincoln College to enable the plant-breeding and other experimental work to be developed. EI. Farm Training Colleges: — (1.) (a.) That laboratory and class-room accommodation be provided at E.uakura, at a cost of about £2,100 ; and (b.) That Penrose Farm, near Masterton, be developed into a Farm Training College, at a cost for additional buildings of about £7,000. (c.) That the provision for training of students in Farm Training Colleges be increased as students become available, either by additions to existing institutions or by the establishment of new ones. (2.) (a.) That Farm Training Colleges should be under the control of a Board consisting of the Ministers of Agriculture and Education, also one representative of each of these Departments, and three members of the Board of Agriculture, including the President. (b.) That the curriculum should be made as short and intensive as seasonal conditions will allow. (c.) That the work should consist mainly of demonstrations on farm methods and management, class and laboratory work, including a minimum of actual farm labour on the part of the student. (d.) That the main subjects dealt with should be soils, fertilizers, crops, live-stock breeding and management, farm-management, farm economics, and horticulture. (e.) That the staff should consist of a College Principal; an agricultural graduate for every thirty students ; a farm overseer ; skilled farm-workers capable of giving instruction in their special crafts ; a horticulturist; and the necessary domestic staff. (/.) That 200 acres of first-class land or its equivalent would suffice for the purposes of a Farm Training College. 111. The Smedley Estate, Hawke's Bay :■ —• (17.) That the estate continue to be managed by the Department of Agriculture, in association with the Public Trustee. (b.) That the sum of £1,300 per annum should be allocated from the income, £1,000 for twentyfive bursaries to enable Hawke's Bay boys to obtain a training in agriculture, and £300 for a scholarship or scholarships to enable a selected Hawke's Bay student or students to take a degree course in agriculture ; any balance not used in any one year to revert to the trust. (c.) That suitable land be procured in Hawke's Bay out of the income of the estate for a Farm Training College to be established as soon as the need of such a college in Hawke's Bay has been demonstrated, such land to be used in the meantime as a demonstration farm. LV. Post-graduate Training : — (a.) That research work in agricultural problems should be encouraged at one or more of the University Colleges and at research stations, such, as the Cawthron Institute at Nelson, at which special facilities for post-graduates training in agricultural work should be provided. (6.) That a travelling scholarship be established to enable selected post-graduate students to proceed abroad for the purpose of furthering their education in agricultural science. V. Endowments :—• That considerable areas of land of little present value, such as the liautu Block in the centre of the North Island, should be set aside, where possible, as endowments for agricultural education. With regard to matters not explicitly included in the order of reference the Board makes the following suggestions : — 1. Agricultural Extension Worlis. —That the number of instructors in agriculture in both Islands be increased, provided that new appointees should have taken the B.Sc. or B.Ag. degree. 2. That the number of agricultural instructors engaged in advising teachers and in directing the nature-study and elementary agriculture in primary and post-primary schools should be increased.