The Evening Star SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1926. RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY.

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JULY 10, 1926. RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY.

The kernel of Sir Frank Heath’s report on scientific industrial research was its stress on the need for co-ordinating the various activities now being carried on more or loss independently. When the report came up for consideration by Parliament yesterday the Prime Minister said the question was whether members would agree to the Government providing sufficient money to initiate the scheme in some centre in one of the districts in which were the principal primary industries. The locality of that centre may not yet have been definitely fixed, but it is regarded as essential that it should bo near some town approximately in the centre of the North Island, and that its prime subject for investigation will bo the dairying industry. Air Coates said yesterday that the Government had practically decided on the location. Since the head of the Government professes conviction of the great need for research and belief that Sir Frank Heath’s recommendations are thoroughly sound and practical, and since tho debate in Parliament yesterday showed all parties practically unanimous in taking the same view, it may bo taken for granted that the scheme will promptly be initiated. Perhaps the best feature of yesterday’s debate was tho abstention of members from electioneering on the question of site. Doubtless the member in whose constituency the now institute is situated will be envied by his fellowmembers, but circumstances quite other than personal ones dictate the location. If the choice of the Advisory Council is also made on rigidly non-political lines, the new scheme may be regarded as being launched on the right principles.

Apart from the Prime Minister’s speech, the report of tho debate includes no very outstanding or original contributions from members of Parliament. Some of them reminded the Go-

vormnont that dairying was not tho only industry in New Zealand which would benefit by scientific research. Tho Government is perfectly aware of this. The only other Minister who spoke besides the Prime Minister was Mr Hawken, and he, like his chief, singled out afforestation as one of the subjects demanding research in New Zealand.

But there was another matter raised by Messrs Glenn and Ransom. The former said that the period of virgin soil in Now Zealand had passed, and that science would have to make up the deficiency; while tho latter member declared that the scientific treatment of our live stock and pastures should result in a 50 per cent, increase in production.

dnetion. According to evidence that has been given in the Dunedin law courts this week, there is in New Zealand pastoral property which has been allowed to go back until some of it comes under the category of “ abandoned runs.” Experts have expressed the opinion that under proper management such country could be redeemed. There are many contributing causes to such retrogression, chief among them being ignorance and inexperience, lack of capital, unsuitable tenures, and mistakes of subdivision. It is not only in Now Zealand that there is this mishandling of land. A great deal of land in England is going out of cultivation. Sir Beach Thomas, a well-known English journalist, has been investigating this unwelcome phenomenon, and speaks of localities where 11 some thorns, some briare, and a multiplicity of thistles and rats have created a desert. A whole landscape whore corn was grown on well-tilled fields less than a generation ago is now a barren prairie.” This case is not an isolated one. Ho finds that the poorer sorts of soils of England are falling into decay and taking with them the nucleus of a whole class, the farmers, whether tenants or owners, who farm from 100 to 300 acres. They dare not spond money; and, though they may keep alive by the negative process of not spending, they min the land, and it will ruin them if they stay long enough. It is perhaps humiliating, but the fact remains that where this decay is being arrested it is by the introductl- a of now methods by foreigners, f-; a udinavian managers have been placed in charge of a number of big English farms, and have brought prosperity to the land. Their method is to concentrate on artificially-grown fodder to “feed the boast” instead of relying on grass pastures for that purpose, and avoiding as a sure road to collapse the cultivation of land for the purpose of soiling grain. Most notable of all are the efforts of two British experimenters in Kent. One, a retired naval officer, has sunk immense capital in a pig farm of small area, and is getting already a handsome return on it. Another, a general in the Army, has put £BO,OOO into 400 acres for the production of almost every form of food to be found on a farm, and the gross return from tho production exceeds £1,900 a month. Each of these intensive experiments employs about eighty hands, and is being watched with lively interest by those concerned about agricultural conditions in England. Both of these ex-service men may ho regarded as research workers, who bring science and capital to bear on agricultural problems. It is not necessary that all such enterprise should be left to the State. The beginnings of State supervised and subsidised research work in New Zealand will necessarily cover a small*range of subjects. There is ample scope for private enterprise to explore subjects outside that range in the meantime, for in a young country such as this it produces an uncomfortable feeling to learn that a considerable area of land is being allowed to deteriorate.