Potato industry work recognised

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 14

Potato industry work recognised

The contribution of Mr R. G. Robinson, of Christchurch, to the potato industry in New Zealand was recognised at a function at the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln yesterday.

Seven cabinets, in each of which a ton of potatoes can be held under controlled temperature conditions, were handed over to the potato section of the division.

Potato growers, merchants, the Potato Board and growers and merchant associations have contributed to the project, which has also beep partly financed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The cabinets will enable studies to be made of the storage of potatoes for processing and sowing. Mr C. C. A. McLachlan, member of Parliament for Ashburton, formally handed over the cabinets—which will be known as the R. G. Robinson storage research unit—and presented a plaque to Dr H. C. Smith, director of the division.

Mr T. R. Mundy, president of the Potato Growers’ Federation, who initiated the project to recognise Mr Robinson’s work, said he believed that the first thing people associated with the name of Mr Robinson was the variety Ilam Hardy, which had found a place in the country with growers, processors and cooks as “just one of the best.”

Ilam Hardy comprised some 43 per cent of the acreage of potatoes in New Zealand, said Mr I. A. Baxter, chairman of the Potato Board, who has worked with Mr Robinson’s firm for the last 24 years.

Fifty per cent of the potatoes grown in the United States were used for process-

ing in some form, said Mr Baxter.

Mr Robinson predicted that results of great value to the industry would come from the research unit.

Dr Smith said that storage was one of the main problems facing the industry. Before the function the visitors to the division heard

an explanation of the purpose of the cabinets from Mr C. M. Driver, who is leader of the potato section. The unit has been designed and built by the staff of the department

The guests sat down to morning tea at which Mrs D. T. P. Gallagher, of the potatoe section, said that all of

the food, with the exception of the scones, had been made with potatoes as a base. The picture shows in front of one of the cabinets, from left, Mr Mundy, Dr Smith and Messrs Robinson, McLachlan and Baxter. Mr Mundy is shaking hands with Mr Robinson.