"Ruakura his monument”

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32959, 4 July 1972, Page 3

"Ruakura his monument”

Dr McMeekan more than anyone else brought science and the farmer together in NewZealand. said the Minister of Agriculture, (Mr Carter).

Farmers and agricultural scientists throughout New Zealand would deeply regret his tragic death.

“Dr McMeekan was not only a leading scientist in his own right, he was also a leader of men.”

Mr Carter said the pattern Dr McMeekan set at Ruakura for conveying research findings to farmers in a practical, understandable manner had been adopted by many other research and educational institutions throughout New Zealand. “Ruakura is his monument,” said Dr L. R. Wallace. Director of Agricultural Science at Ruakura. “Dr McMeekan built Ruakura up from a small research station to an institution of international importance. He had a great love of animals. His quest as a biologist was to understand the l basic biological principles 1

■ underlying the fanning busi- , ness.”' Dr McMeekan was a great j exponent of the view that re- ' search was of no value unless it was applied. Dr Wallace . said that he was a very proi vocative man who did not ! hesitate to attack agricultural tradition that blocked progress. “In his vigorous and stimulating way, Dr McMeekan was a leader of a new generation of animal husbandry.” The chairman of the Dairy Board (Mr F. L. Onion), said that Dr McMeekan’s accomplishments for dairying and for agriculture as a whole could never be measured.