GROWTH REQUIRES CHANGE

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 15

GROWTH REQUIRES CHANGE

Since the New Zealand Agricultural Engineering Institute was established at Lincoln College in 1964 the director of the institute and the professor of agricultural engineering al the college has been the same person—first Professor J. R. Burton and more recently Professor G. T. Ward.

In 1964, before the institute was formed, the agricultural engineering department had a staff of about six. Now the institute and the department together have a staff of more than 60. This growth has made necessary a comprehensive review of the institute’s constitutional and administrative structure by its management committee and also the college council. As a result of this review, and under constitutional amendments approved by the Minister of Agricluture, Mr MacIntyre, and the college council, a division has been made in responsibilities. Professor Ward remains as professor of agricultural engineering and head of the college’s agricultural engineering department but gives up the directorship of the institute, to which Mr E. M. Watson, who has been deputydirector since the beginning of 1970, has been ap< pointed.

However, the institute will continue to have the benefit of Professor Ward’s expertise and knowledge in that a new position on the management committee of the institute has been created for the professot of agricultural engineering and he will take that up. He will also be a member of the executive committee of the institute and a member of its technical advisory committee. In announcing the changes, the management committee of the institute and the college council re-

corded their deep appreciation of the contribution made by Professor Ward to the directorship of the institute and acknowledged his leadership, energy and enthusiasm in guiding the institute towards fulfilling its constitutional objectives.

Mr Watson, who took up his duties with the institute in September, 1965, and is probably the fourth member of its staff to be appointed and the second research officer, said it was anticipated that there would be continued close co-operation between the institute and the college's agricultural engineering department in many areas. They would continue to be under the same roof and to share many facilities to their mutual benefit.

He expected that the work of the institute would continue along similar lines to those it had followed in the past, he said. Their main interest lay in developments which would benefit the New Zealand farmer in the fields of farm machinery, soil and water engineering and farm structures and buildings. They would continue to be working in the areas of research, development and testing. The institute, too, expected to continue its liaison with manufacturers and to be available for consultancy work as and when required. It also expected to co-operate with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in projects of importance to the country.

Mr Watson said that the institute always welcomed suggestions and ideas for possible avenues of work.

Expressing his appreciation of the efforts of the staff, he said that it was esssentially a team effort. The results that had been achieved had been the results of everyones efforts, and this sort of approach was essential in the work of a practical nature in which they were involved. “I certainly hope that the institute will continue to play its part in the development of agriculture in this country,” said Mr Watson. Professor Ward came to the college and institute in 1971. He was previously professor of both engineering and agricultural engineering at Macdonald College, McGill University, at Quebec in Canada.

In 1952 Professor Ward gained a doctorate of philosophy degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Durham in England and from 1951 to 1952 was a scientific officer at the Rowett Research Institute of the Agricultural Research Council at Bucksburn in Aberdeenshire. After working in British North Borneo, he was for seven years from 1953 on the staff of the University of Malaya. He had been at McGill University for about 10 years before coming to Lincoln. Mr Watson, who obtained a mechanical engineering degree from Leeds University in 1952, had spent all of his working life before coming to New Zealand with Rolls Royce, Ltd, at Derby in England. Before he came to Lincoln he was development engineer working on the Spey engine for Buccaneer and Nimrod aircraft.

Appointed as a principal research officer, Mr Watson worked initially at the institute on safety frames for tractors. Subsequently he was involved in aspects of mechanical engineering and since becoming deputy-director of the institute in 1970 he has been concerned with the whole range of the institute’s work.