HELP TO FARMERS

Evening Star, Issue 19932, 31 July 1928, Page 7

HELP TO FARMERS

AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION REORGANISATION OF DIVISION As tho activities of the field division of tho Department of Agriculture have outgrown the present organisation, a reconstruction of the department has been necessitated. With extra instructors appointed, it was necessary that supervisors should be appointed to overlook tho instructional work and coordinate the activities. Consequently tho dominion has been divided mto four main districts—Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago-Southland—and tho senior instructors under tho old regime have been placed in charge with the titles of superintendents of instruction. Tho reorganisation of the department has been made purely with tne aim of instructional and experimental work to give greater facilities to the farmers than they have enjoyed in the past. Mr R. B. Tennent, who has been chief instructor in agriculture in Dunedin, has been appointed superintendent of the field division of the OtagoSouthland area. His headquarters will remain at Dunedin. In the past Mr Tennent’s duties have been the instruction in experimental work in tho Otago district, but with subordinate officers in the various centres under his scheme of co-ordination Mr Tennent will now have charge of the vast area of the southern part of the South Island. Dunedin will have an instructor, who will attend to that area of country extending from Palmerston in the north to the Waipahi River in the south; tho North Otago and Central Otago officers will bo stationed respectively at Oamaru and Alexandra, and resident instructors will also be stationed at Invercargill and Gore. Mr Tennent’s promotion to the new and important position will bo a matter for congratulation on tho part of the farming community and the many bodies interested in the development of Otago. Mr Tennent has proved himself an intensely capable officer and a man who has won. the popularity of all sections. Mr Tennent was trained at the West of Scotland Agricultural College and for fifteen years ho was an instructor in tho Queensland Agricultural College. During the war Mr Tennent served with tho Australian forces at the war, and in 1920 was appointed a field instructor for Otago by the Department of Agriculture. Ho is particularly well known for his irrigation work.

The Invercargill instructor, Mr 1). M'Gillivray, terminates his duties todav, and will leave for Canterbury to take up a departmental position there. To-morrow Mr Tennent will go to Invercargill to make arrangements for the institution of the now regime. Mr Tennent has a complete knowledge of Southland, having been stationed there for a time before taking up his position in Dunedin. An instructor has not vet been found for Invercargill, but it is believed that officers who have been connected with the fields division in Dunedin for the past few’ years will take np duties m the three Otago centres. CONGRATULATIONS TO MR TENNENT. GOVERNMENT’S ACTION PRAISED. At a meeting of the executive of the Otago A. and P. Society held to-day the following resolution was passed, and the secretary instructed to convoy a copy of same to Mr Tennent; “That this meeting desires to place on record its congratulations to Mr R. B Tennent on Lia appointment to the responsible position of superintendent of the Department of Agriculture for Otago and Southland. Mr Tennent.for some years has been closely associated with the farming community, and has taken a keen interest in carrying out various experiments, and has rendered valuable assistance to farmers throughout Otago. It is gratifying to the committee and to farmers generally to learn that his headquarters will ho Dunedin, and the Government are to be congratulated on recognising the merit and ability of such a capable officer, so well qualified to fill such a responsible position.”