PLANT RESEARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1937, Page 9

PLANT RESEARCH.

EXTENSION OF WORK. MOUNT ALBERT BUILDING. DETAILS OF THE SCHEME. While it is understood that the exDerts have not definitely finalised their plans with respect to the establishment of an agricultural laboratory at Mount Albert with the object of extending the scope of the plant diseases section of the plant research bureau, the scheme is sufficiently well advanced to give some indication of the extent of the building which is to be erected. Recently it was announced that &e Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was taking powers to acquire, under the Public Works Act, 10 acres of land near the Grammar School at Mount Albert, and it is now stated that this property has been acquired and is situated at the end of Mount Royal Avenue. On this area ft is proposed to erect a two-storeyed concrete building covering a considerable area. The preliminary plans provide on the ground floor for a large laboratory, a laboratory kitchen, a treatment room, a photographic studio and dark room, rooms for the keeping of records, stores, accommodation for typistes, and general offices. Here also will be located a museum laboratory dealing with insect pests. On the first floor there are to be provided eight, laboratories, an herbarium and ten offices. A feature of the construction will be fhat all laboratories will be air conditioned, so that there.will be no chance of insect pests either leaving them or entering them from outside. A commencement has just been made with the plans for the work, and as it is possible that the present proposals will be modified somewhat, some time must elapse before tenders are called and the task of erecting the building is undertaken. The scheme will form an important part of the operations of the Plant Research Bureau, which at Lincoln College, near Christchurch, devotes attention to crops, and at Palmerston North to grasslands. The Mount Albert laboratory is to be under the direction of Dr. G. H. Cunningham, who will have a staff of eight or nine. The laboratory and the land surrounding it will specialise in the investigation of diseases of citrus and other fruits, with special attention being given to the problems affecting orchardists in the Auckland Province.