WOOL AND SHEEP RESEARCH

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 27, 1 August 1933, Page 6

WOOL AND SHEEP RESEARCH

The wool and sheep improvement schemers having a mixed reception from North Island farmers. Though the initial meeting which approved the plan and sought the Government's blessing was practically of one mind, criticism and dissent have since appeared. The Farmers' Union conference was doubtful of the plan and the method of putting it into operation. Other meetings of farmers on the Manrawatu side have been critical and even hostile. General approval, however, was given by Wairarapa farmers who met at Masterton yesterday. The points of difference so far raised are whether there should be a new board and a new levy, or whether the scheme should be financed and managed by the Meat Board. There are strong arguments against over-boarding of New Zealand. If an existing organisation can be so extended as to carry out this desirable work successfully there is certainly no need to create a new body. A danger always arises if superfluous bodies are created riot only of overhead expenses being heavier (though this may not be great) but of the organisations failing to work together. Where research is undertaken, and this plan largely centres on investigation of existing faults with a ,view to their removal, independent activity must involve overlapping and wasted effort. To avoid this a Research Department was established, not to undertake all the research necessary but to keep all research organisations here and overseas in touch with each other. Surely it is possible for the sheepfarmers, once misunderstandings are removed, to devise a plan under which the improvement of sheep-breeding and wool production can be undertaken without overlapping or unnecessary expense. But it would be foolish in the extreme to withhold approval of any plan' fdr fear that it mightjcall for initial expenditure when there is every prospect of the expenditure being highly reproductive.