Finds Holland Thriving

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30820, 4 August 1965, Page 8

Finds Holland Thriving

Mr J. Lammerink, a senior scientific officer at the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific ami Industrial Research at Lincoln, in many ways did not recognise his homeland, Holland, when he spent two months in Europe recently after an absence of 14 years.

When Ke left Holland in 1951 it seemed that the country—about the size of Canterbury—could not support its population and it had lost control of what is now Indonesia.

But today Mr Lammerink found that the country was booming. The number of cars on the roads was superficial evidence of its prosperity. The population had increased from some 10m to

about 12.5 m, and the new suburbs and highways that had been built to cater for this population increase made him feel in many ways that he was in a different country..

The people themselves seemed to be more confident and to be enjoying life more. They owned boats, enjoyed holidays and had more leisure time, and they realised that through planning still further improvements were possible. Mr Lammerink said that thousands of Spanish, Turkish and Italian workers had had to be brought into the country to make up for the shortage of labour. The new city of Rotterdam, rebuilt after being destroyed during the war, now had the most important port in Europe—it handled more shipping than any other.

Mr Lammerink said that 10 per cent of the area of Holland was being used for primary production and horticulture. In order to amalgamate small farms a subsidy

was paid to a farmer to sell his holding. He was then paid a wage while being trained for a new job. On other small holdings methods were being intensified. He revisited a 25-acre farmlet where he worked and hid during World War II after he had been called up for foreed laboutxin Germany. No grazing in the ordinary sense was now done there. All the grass was cut mechanically and blown into a trailer and carted in to be fed to cattle held in a big yard with a shelter.

During his trip Mr Lammerink visited plant breeding institutions in Germany. Sweden and Belgium, as well as in Holland.

He was impressed with the developments in seed production in Europe and felt that New Zealand might be able to copy these, provided it was willing to produce the sort of material that the overseas customer wanted and it was not just a matter of selling

surplus material over and above New Zealand requirements.

Twenty years ago Holland was an importer of grass seed, obtaining some from New Zealand. The country nojv exported seed to the value of £sm per year. It also exported potato seed worth £lom to countries, including England, and tulip bulbs to the value of £2oin. In the Zeeland area Mr Lammerink was impressed by the £3ooom project to enclose arms of the sea that jutted into the country. These are to be converted into fresh water areas so that they become available for irrigation and recreation. This will also make it unnecessary to raise the level of dykes to protect the surrounding country from the sea.

Among the research and educational institutions that Mr Lammerink visited was the University of Wageningen. Holland, where he graduated in 1951. Everywhere he went he had found that there was plenty of money available for research, he said.