NEW POST FOR MR J. W. HADFIELD

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25553, 22 July 1948, Page 4

NEW POST FOR MR J. W. HADFIELD

Director of Agronomy Division RETIREMENT FROM FLAX CORPORATION The retirement of Mr J. W. Hadfield, general manager of the Linen Flax Corporation of New Zealand, to take effect from September 30 this year, was announced yesterday by the managing director of the corporation (Mr F. Johnson). Mr Hadfield had been appointed director of the Agronomy Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, said Mr Johnson, who added: “We hope that we will still have the benefit of Mr Hadfield’s experience in this industry.” Mr Hadfield will hold the >post in the Agronomy Division formerly held by Mr R. A. Calder, who died recently. “The department was faced with a difficult decision when it was approached to see whether it would be willing to release Mr Hadfield to go to the Agronomy Division,” said Mr Johnson. Mr Hadfield <had been a prime mover in the formation of the division. “The board of directors considered the request and concluded that, with extreme regret, they would have to lose the services of Mr Hadfield. They realised from a national point of view that the claims of the Agronomy Division were superior even to those of the Linen Flax Corporation.”

Mr Johnson referred to the great effort that Mr Hadfield had put into the linen flax industry, which was begun in New Zealand at the request of the United Kingdom Government as a war effort. Mr Hadfield had fortunately been overseas in 1939, visiting Belgium, Ireland, and England, and had got considerable information concerning the production, machinery, and processing concerned in the linen flax industry, and this knowledge had proved to be of remarkable assistance when the New Zealand Government received the request from the British Government to grow 15,000 acres of linen flax. Had it not been for Mr Hadfield’s knowledge and experience of the linen flax industry, it would have been very doubtful whether the New Zealand Government could have complied with the request, he said. Not only was the linen flax industry of benefit to the British Government, but it helped New Zealand, providing fibre and certain heavy types of threads necessary to the New Zealand farming industry. Having undertaken the production of linen flax, the Government realised that it would be desirable to retain the industry after the war, and six fact ories to supply local needs for threads and spun products were kept in operation, said Mr Johnson. '

It is safe to say that if local production went out it would be difficult to supply these most essential commodities to farmers. By helping Great Britain New Zealand has materially helped herself,” he said. Mr Hadfield had not only devoted all his time to the industrv as his work, but he had also made it his nobby and deserved the utmost credit for his untiring efforts, said Mr Johnson.