N.Z. ANIMAL RESEARCH

Grey River Argus, 15 March 1940, Page 8

N.Z. ANIMAL RESEARCH

DISSAPATION OF EFFORT I State Department at Fault [Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH,_ March 15. “Insofar as research is concerned, I want my views on one aspect clearly understood, particularly by the farmers of this district. After the promising interest initially shown by the Government in the problem,. I want to say how bitterly disappointed I have been since my return to New Zealand to find that the very pressing question of sane organisation for the control and direction of agricultural research has been mishandled, and apparently abandoned. Instead, wasteful, inefficient methods of diversified and competitive control, through various State Departments, has been permitted to persist, and the position generally has been allowed to become aggravated of recent years.” This statement was made by Professor C. P. McMeekan, Animal Husbandry Professor at Canterbury Agricultural College, during an address to the Canterbury Agricultural and . Pastoral Association’s annual meeting. He was speaking on the work and aims of the College. “This is a serious state of affairs, from a national point of view, and as such, it concerns you as farmers,” said Professor McMeekan. “Further, it promises to have unfortunate repercussions upon the efficient use of the College for research purposes. The ‘emasculation’ of an animal researc i programme of the college by the removal of the major animal problems of the South—those relating to mortality in sheep—-is but one example of the harmful effects of the competition referred to. I do. not criticise in any way, the capacity of the department 'concerned with which we are co-Operating to handle these problems, but I criticise the state of affairs that takes from an established insitution work that it was created, and is maintained, at considerable expense, to perform, and which needlessly sets up separate facilities and staff for tie purpose.”