LOSS TO ANIMAL RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22678, 5 April 1939, Page 12

LOSS TO ANIMAL RESEARCH

Dr. M. C. Franklin

For Australia DOMINION POLICY CRITICISED

Comment by Professor

H. R. Hudson

“An extremely serious loss to animal research work in the Dominion” v.as how Professor E. R. Hudson, director of Canterbury Agricultural College. Lincoln, last evening described the appointment of Dr. M. C. Franklin. M.Sc., Ph.D., A.1.C., a senior lecturer at the college, to an important research post in AustraliaDr. Franklin, who is regarded as one of the foremost investigators of animal nutritional problems in New Zealand, has been appointed senior research officer in the Division of A.nimal Health and Nutrition of the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial' Research and will be stationed at tfie McMaster Lauoratory in Sydney.

Facilities not Available

Deep concern at the loss of Dr. Franklin was expressed by Professor Hudson, who claimed that Dr. Franklin was leaving the Dominion only because there were not the facilities for research here that were available in the Commonwealth.

“The loss of Dr. Franklin is a serious blow to the research work we should be undertaking, particularly the development of research into sheep problems and losses,” said Professor Hudson. “Dr. Franklin is going to Australia not because he is attracted by a big salary or by more congenial conditibns of work, but because there are facilities there for pushing ahead an active programme of research.

“In New Zealand in general, and in Canterbury in particular, we have a great need for an active i*esearch programme,” Professor Hudson told “The Press.” The need to retain Dr. Franklin in the Dominion in the interests of the farming community had apparently not been appreciated. “I consider it nothing short of a tragedy that Lincoln College—and under some circumstances the same thing applies to Massey College—is not being developed as a centre of animal research,” continued thd director. “In his report to the Government on investigations he made into the need for animal research in New Zealand, Dr. John Hamhiond. of Cambridge University, stressed the urgent necessity for a research programme and recommended that the colleges should play an active part in that programme. “That recommendation has apparently been completely ignored and the tendency seems to be for animal research to be confined almost exclusively to the Department of Agriculture. My personal opinion is that this is not in the Dominion’s best interests. The natural home for agricultural research is the uni\*ersity colleges of agriculture,” Professor Hudson concluded. DR. FRANKLINS NEW POST SENIOR RESEARCH OFFICER OUTSTANDING WORK IN ANIMAL NUTRITION Dr. Franklin, who has been lecturer In chemistry and animal nutrition at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, will be engaged in Australia mainly on biochemical and nutritional investigations of sheep problems, and will be stationed at the McMaster Animal Health Laboratory in Sydney.

One of the most prominent workers in the field of agricultural research in New Zealand. Dr. Franklin has made some outstanding contributions to animal nutrition. His development of the calcium gluconate treatment for the control of milk fever in ewes has proved very effective in Canterbury. Other particuar problems on .which he has concentrated are sorrel poisoning in sheep and more recently parasites of sheep, in which his work has been of great value to the farming community.

The holder o£ a post-graduate scholarship in science from the University of New Zealand, Dr. Franklin went to Cambridge University in 1931 to carry out special study in animal nutrition and the bio-chemical aspects of animal diseases. He was later awarded the Strathcona research exhibition scholarship, tenable at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and was for six months on the staff of the Institute of Animal Pathology. During the two and a half years he spent overseas. Dr. Franklin visited the leading research stations of the Empire. Returning to New Zealand early in 1834, he took up duty as senior lecturer in animal nutrition at Canterbury Agricultural College, a position Which he has held since then.