AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22103, 27 May 1937, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

"Almost Negligible Achievement" STRONG CRITICISM WORK OF GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS Dissatisfaction with the present system of agricultural research in New Zealand has already prompted the North Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union to prepare a remit for the Dominion conference of the union, suggesting a co-ordinated scheme. After an attack on present research methods by Mr Alan Leslie, formerly veterinarian at the Canterbury Agricultural College, the branch executive, decided yesterday to seek the support of other provincial executives for its proposal. Almost negligible achievement, lack of expert workers, and ill-de-fined spheres of . activity were alleged against the Government research organisation by Mr Leslie, when he addressed the executive at yesterday's meeting. He mentioned the appointment of a publicity agent for wool in England. "I suppose you are paying for personality. Are you going to forgo personality and pay for brains, and give £ISOO a year for a man who will investigate your troubles in New Zealand? The hard work is here at home." Lack of Experts "They say, 'We are doing the work,' but they are not getting results partly because there are too many little organisation:;, and partly because of inexperienced research workers, said Mr Leslie. He criticised the absence of any distinction between practical service to farmers (the application of existing knowledge), and the conduct of research, where new knowledge had to be established to cope with farmers problems. . "It i 3 very important to have a clear distinction between service and research. Take the outbreak of disease among sheep in Canterbury this year. To whom did you apply for assistance: Did you apply to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research? Or was it the Department of Agriculture which was responsible for sending specialists On to your properties? Jt couldn't be the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, because it has no veterinary men at all. If you had called in the Department of Agriculture it could not have sent a specialist. It has not got one. It has not a parasitologist. It has only a beginner, who will not be useful for five or six years. The "Real Test" ! "I cannot see any hope of results till) some organisation takes place. I would not be too keen on the levy on wool till I am assured that you will get satisfactory results. What the wool levy was put on for I do not know. I am slightly up against it till the Government departments say which of them is going to carry out the research.- You will see them watching each other like cat and dog all the time. Since we have set up the Department for Scientific and Industrial Research, we should say: research from that department and service from this. "The real test of research work is the amount of real new stuff that is turned out—not second-hand stuff. And you could write all the new stuff produced here on the back of a class card. It would take 20 volumes to hold all that has been said about what is going to be done. You must ask for a definite ruling on who is doing the research work in this country, and who is giving the service. And you must stand out for one department doing the research and one giving the service. "Lack of Co-operation" "In this, country we have a lot of research workers, but they are all beginners, and not experienced men. Take the Wheat Research Institute. Not long ago it appointed an expert chemist from Canada. That man has now left to take up a more lucrative position, and they have appointed two juniors. That laboratory is now further back than it was when it started. They started with an expert, and now all the threads are lost after 10 years." The Plant Research Station had no geneticist. There were men to do this work in the country, but they were separated, stationed in Auckland, at Palmerston North, and at Lincoln. "The whole thing is disjointed. There are too many little organisations. The Wheat Research Institute should not be separated from the Plant Research Station. It has the only geneticist in the country of experience and standing. There are numerous cases of lack of co-operation." Nothing at all was being done in the country about dairying diseases. The department gave the assurance, if it was asked, that something was being done, but there were no results. The result was that the farmers had come to the conclusion that the research work was unsatisfactory. In this they were correct.