CONTROL OF INSECTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 115, 18 May 1933, Page 3

CONTROL OF INSECTS.

"VAST NATIONAL INSURANCE." DANGER OF STRANGULATION. "Entomological science has reached far beyond the popular conception of a butterfly net and a bojc of pins," said Dr. D. Miller, of the Cawthron Institute, in an address to the Wellington Philosophical Society. "The science is not encouraged merely for the benefit of hobbyists; it is a very serious business, the returns from which are far-reaching in the interests of civilisation. It is one of the vastest insurance organisations for national safety from which the profits accruing to tlie policy-holders far exceed all human assessment; it is an insurance organisation supported by premiums that would bring many a life insurance society into bankruptcy. "What applies to entomological science applies equally as well to all other sciences in relation with primary production; it is upon the fostering of these so-called applied sciences that the welfare of the State depends. Under the present economic stress both research institutions and universities naturally suffer —this is to be accepted. But why should the position be unnecessarily aggravated in the name of economy by almost .complete strangulation of services fundamental to national stability? We cannot altogether blame the Budget controllers; the system of organisation is largely responsible, owing to a lack of sufficient co-ordination of research activities, which does not tend to encourage a clear understanding. The present research system in New Zealand is largely the outcome of what might be called the pioneer period of reasearcli; it has outlived its purpose, and its overhaul is long overdue. It is in the co-ordination of the research units that we shall find the touchstone for true economy, and not merely in the Budget. "The researches in New Zealand fall under three major control groups— Government Departments, universities, and independent institutions, and under the first of these the activities are further disunited owing to their segregation in at least four Departments, only one of which is solely a research Department. Though a certain amount of co-operation exists between the three major groups the linkage is by no means sufficiently close. A definite advance toward research stability would be to make full use of the one Government Department set up specially in the interests of research by bringing within it all Government research activities. Thus the purely regulatory Departments would be relieved of activities foi - which they are not designed, and at the same time co-operation with the universities and independent institutions would be assured on a broad basis." Dr. Miller said there was reason to believe that piri-piri burrs could be subjugated by insects, and also ragwort, and that the primary producers would bo savedi £250,000 in each case.