WORLD PASTURE CONGRESS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26855, 7 October 1952, Page 9

WORLD PASTURE CONGRESS

1956 SESSIONS IN NEW ZEALAND EARLY PREPARATIONS ADVOCATED (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 3. Grassland research workers in the Dominion would have to begin organising immediately for the 1956 International Grasslands Congress, to be held in New Zealand, said Dr. C. P. McMeekan, superintendent of the Ruakura Animal Research, Station, when he arrived at Whenuapai tonight by Pan American Stratocyulser. Dr. McMeekan, together with Mr L. Cor kill, chief plant breeder at the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, represented New Zealand at the sixth International Grasslands Congress, held at the Pennsylvania State College, in the United States. Dr. McMeekan said that only the cream of the world’s grassland workers would come to New Zealand because of the travelling involved. The Government’s invitation for the seventh congress "to be held in New Zealand had been accepted unanimously, and the recent congress had given a most favourable reception to the six papers from New Zealand research workers which he and Mr Corkill had presented. Some of them had been rated among the best heard at the congress.

Dr. McMeekan said he deeply appreciated the spirit which had prompted members of his staff at Ruakura and Waikato farmers to contribute £450 in two days toward the cost of his trip. “Their contributions made the trip possible,” he said. “I did not accept it as a personal tribute, but as a sign of their realisation that New Zealand has an obligation to share its grassland knowledge with the farmers and scientists of other countries.”