IMPORTANT POST

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1943, Page 3

IMPORTANT POST

MR. R. B. TENNENT

The appointment is announced of Mr. Robert Browne Tennent to the position of Assistant Director-General, Department of Agriculture. Born in Scotland in 1893, Mr. Tennent attended the Queensland Agricultural College in 1914, where he gained diplomas in agriculture and then joined, the field staff of the Queensland Department of Agriculture. He saw service in the Great War with the A.I.F. and was discharged from the Army with the rank of Lieutenant. In 1918 Mr. Tennent attended the West of Scotland Dairy School, where he gained the National Dairy Diploma. After the war he returned to the Queensland Department of Agriculture and in 1921

came to New Zealand to join the Department of Agriculture at Dunedin as Instructor in Agriculture. Subsequently he was appointed Fields Superintendent for the Otago-South-land district and in 1934 was promoted j to Director of, the Fields Division and transferred to Wellington. Mr. Tennent, who is widely known to farmers, is the author of a number of papers on agriculture, particularly in relation to irrigation, in connection with which matter he visited the U.S.A. He has also been associated with various primary industry activities, including the Plant Research Bureau, the Wheat Research Institute, and the National Council of Primary Production. SUCCESSOR TO MR. TENNENT. The appointment is also announced of Mr. Percy Walton Smallfield to succeed Mr. Tennent as Director of the Fields Division. Born in 1898, Mr. Smallfield was educated at the Auckland Grammar School, Auckland University College, and Canterbury Agricultural College. He graduated B.Agr.Sc. and joined the Department of Agriculture as Assistant Instructor in Agriculture, Auckland, in February, 1921. He was transferred to the Ruakura Farm of Instruction as Instructor in Charge of the Ruakura Farm Training College in June, 1923, and was appointed Fields Superintendent, Auckland, in May. 1928. Mr. Smallfield graduated M.Agr.Sc. He was engaged In land development work under the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1929, and developed large areas of scrub land for settlement in Rotorua and in the South and North Auckland districts. Appointed superintendent of the Rua-

kura Animal Research Station in 1939, he was engaged in animal nutrition and pasture research work. He was appointed superintendent of services vegetable production in May, 1942, and superintended the cultivation of 2000 acres of vegetables for the Armed Forces. He is the author of several articles on farming and farm research work in the Auckland district; grassing of pumice land, and topdressing and farming in the Auckland Province.

Mr. Smallfleld was employed as Army Education Instructor in Agriculture in 1918-19 at Hornchurch and Lark Hill Camps in England.