CAWTHRON INSTITUTE

Evening Star, Issue 19175, 16 February 1926, Page 4

CAWTHRON INSTITUTE

ITS STAFF AND ITS WORK VALUABLE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Nelson owes much to the beneficence of the late Mr Thomas Cawthron who died in October, 1915 (states the handsome illustrated booklet ‘Sunny Nelson,’ issued by the Wellington, Nelson, Taranaki, and Hawke’s Bay Provincial Court). During his lifetime he made large gifts to the Nelson School of Music, the Nelson Institute, and the Hospital Board, besides presenting to the town a fine park and the flight of granite steps on Church Hill. By his will the sura of £200,000 was left for the establishment of the Cnwthroi) Institute. The staff consists of Professor T. H. Easter held (director), Dr R. J. Tillyard (chief biologist and entomologist), Dr Kathleen Curtis (mycologist and plant pathologist), Mr T. Rigg (agricultural chemist), Mr N. M'Lelland (orchard chemist), Mr W. C. Davies (curator and photographer), Mr Harrison (librarian), together with various assistants. “Fellworth,” the headquarters of the Cawthron Institute, is a large building occupying a commanding position on the hillside at the eastern end of Bridge street. Here are the laboratories, a valuable library, and a museum, while ou the flat ground below is an area devoted to agricultural experiments. At Annesbrook, near Stoke, the institute has twenty acres available for experimental purposes, and on the Port Hills overlooking Tahuna is the' Observatory Park of over forty acres, which is being laid out as an arboretum. By a bequest of the late Mr Isaac Hopkins, of Auckland, £3,000 has been left to the institute as an endowment for bee research. A gift of sixtyfive acres‘of the best land in Stoke has been promised by Mr J. W. Marsden for research in agriculture and forestry. Although established only five years ago, the Cawthron Institute has already done excellent work which has proved of great value to the fanners, ofchardista, and tomato-growers of the district. An exhaustive soil survey has been made of the Waimea County, and is now being extended to the Buller and Takaka Counties. Practical advice on the proper treatment of the various soils has been given by pamphlets and numerous lectures. An extensive series of experiments on lucernegrowing is almost completed. A survey of the insect life of the district has been made. A minute wasp (Aphelinus mail), which effectively destroys the woolly aphis, has been successfully imported from America and liberated in all parts of New Zealand. Various fungal diseases are being carefully studied with a view to their control, and important experiments made with regard to the cool storage of apples. This brief account of some of the activities of* the institute will indicate of what far-reaching importance not only to Nelson, but to the whole of New Zealand, the Cawthron Institute is likely to prove.