Opening address—New Zealand veterinary association conference, 1955

Abstract

Extract

We have recently seen another upsurge of interest in the question of training veterinarians in our own country. Most of you will rembember that a committee to report on the matter was appointed by the Labour Government in 1943 ; but the question of training veterinarians in New Zealand is far older than that. True it is that in the last 10 or 12years it has been bedevilled by some farmer opposition, though the farmers are not, and have not been, as unanimous in opposition as, at one time, they were in support. As far back as 1898, the Conference of Agricultural and Pastoral Associations, which at that time was the only body representing farmer opinion (for there was no Farmers' Union), resolved that provision should be made for veterinary education in one or other of the existing university colleges, or otherwise, as will qualify students for a degree. This resolution was carried, although Dr. Gilruth said it would be cheaper to send men to Britain for training. At the conference in 1902, J. G. Wilson proposed that the Government establish an agricultural college where veterinarians could receive diplomas. In the debate, J. S. Holmes, of Otago, submitted that the proper place was in connection with the medical school in Dunedin; while J. Studholme, of Canterbury, thought a chair should be established at Lincoln College. Dr. Gilruth discounted both suggestions. He would like to have men trained in the colony under his own charge. Kirk and Aston, he said, could lecture on botany and chemistry and his men could do the veterinary teaching. All they wanted was a building and the necessary equipment. He did not mention what sort of diploma would be given, or by whom: but his proposals are not without a certain interest today in the light of Dr. Burns's addendum to the Senate Committee's report of last year, to which I shall return later.