Czechs At Lincoln

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 2

Czechs At Lincoln

A Czechoslovakian scientist has come to work at Lincoln College with Professor T. M. Morrison, professor of horticulture. He is Dr. Vaclav Mejstrik, of the Academy of Sciences in Prague. Mrs Karolina Mejstrik, who has come to New Zealand with her husband, knows about 10 languages. She said this week that her husband had learned from scientific papers that Professor Morrison was working on mycorrhizas, which are an association between fungi and plant, roots, and had developed a method —in which her husband was interested—of studying them using radioactive isotopes. Professor Morrison said that the University Grants Committee had awarded a postdoctoral fellowship to Dr. Mejstrik so that he could work with him at Lincoln for

a year. The holder of a masterate In agronomy, a doctorate in natural sciences and a doctorate of science, for which he specialised in microbiology, Dr. Mejstrik has been working in the conservation department of the Academy of Sciences in Prague. This department is concerned with the protection and beautification of the landscape and he is head of a section in microbiology. EROSION INTEREST

Dr. Mejstrik is also interested in New Zealand flora and erosion problems and colonisation of plants on eroded country. In the latter field his country’s problems are the despoiling of the countryside by mining and industrial refuse and he is involved in the reafforestation and revegetation of these areas. Mrs Mejstrik holds the equivalent of a master’s degree in fine arts, for which she studied the theory and practice of art for five years. She attended the

Charles University in Prague, which is the oldest university in Central Europe: it was founded in 1348 by a Czechoslovak king, Charles, who was also the Roman Emperor. Mrs Mejstrik paints portraits and landscapes, is interested in design, and is a member of the Association of Czechoslovak Fine Artists. After leaving university, she taught art in a secondary school and she has lately been employed in a state institute concerned with the preservation of works of art, including buildings, statues, churches and paintings. PARENTS DOCTORS

Mrs Mejstrik’s parents are both doctors of medicine. Her father, who knows about 10 languages, is the head of an institute concerned with hygiene and epidemiology, and her mother is a specialist in children’s diseases.

The Mejstriks’ eight-year-old daughter, Helena, is at present staying with these grandparents. Dr. Mejstrik’s parents are farmers in the north-east of the country. While in New Zealand Mrs Mejstrik would like to find suitable work but she also has in mind writing illustrated articles for newspapers and magazines at home, particularly about Maori culture.

Recently Mrs Mejstrik met Professor R. T. Sussex, of the University of Canterbury, in Prague. She learnt of his visit through the Prague Quartet, which recently spent six months at the University of Canterbury. SIMILARITIES

Although New Zealand was far from their homeland, a number of things here reminded them of their own country, Mrs Mejstrik said. Professor Morrison said that the Mejstriks had commented on similarity of trees in the two countries. The Czechoslovakian national tree, the linden tree, was the lime, of which there were many in New Zealand. Czechoslovakia also had its pines and beech trees.

Mrs Mejstrik showed some postcards of her country depicting its mountains, hills, rivers and countryside and even some sheep. In many respects these showed a similarity between New Zealand and Czechoslovakia.

Mrs Mejstrik said that as they approached New Zealand by sea she was impressed by one of her first views of the country. It was Wellington in the early morning —a white city with white houses on green hills over a greenish-blue sea. “It was a nice image,” she said. The photograph shows Professor Morrison (left), with Dr. Mejstrik and his wife.