CAWTHRON INSTITUTE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 12 October 1922, Page 6

CAWTHRON INSTITUTE

£4o,(loo DUTY PETITION FOR REPAYMENT OR ANNUAL GRANT OF £2OOO EVIDENCE HEARD BY COMMITTEE OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES The Cawtliron Institute petition praying for relief in the matter of the £40,000 stamp duty paid on the bequest of the. late Thomas Cawthron, on the ground that the Institute should be regarded as a national institution, came before the A to L Petitions Committee of the House of Representatives at Wellington on the lltlt inst. The Commissioner of Taxes was i resent, and explained the position of his Department. He advised that if ■ nci were granted it should be by an animal grant rather than by repayment of the capital sum, which would be in m misition to the principle of existing legislation. 'Che witnesses in favour of the petition were Sir James Wilson, President of the Board of Agriculture; Professor Easterficld, Director of the Institute; and Dr. Tillyard, Entomologist and Chief of the Biological Department of the Institute. They wen* introduced by Mr H. Atmore, M.P. for Nelson, who pointed out that the petition was signed by perhaps the most representative body of New Zealand public men who had ever signed a petition. The signatories included the Mayors of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, Blenheim, Nelson, Greymouth, Westport, Wanganui, Mastcrton, Palmerston North, Richmond, and Motueka ,* presidents of agricultural and hortcultural associations, chambers of commerce, fruitgrowers’ associations, philosophical societies, the New Zealand Institute, {armors’ unions, flaxmillers’ and sawmiilers’ assuciatons; chairmen of county councils and harbour boards and other public bodies; the Chancellor of 'the University of Otago and Deans of its various faculties; other University professors, ex-Efficiency Commissioners, and a large number of other representative persons. All the witnesses gave great credit to the officers of the Department of Agriculture for the work which they have done for New Zealand agriculture and horticulture, but explained that much remained to be done in all directions both in the establishment of scientific principles and in.their application. i Sir James. Wilson gave evidence that the Cawthron Institute was worthy of The support of the whole agricultural community. He stated that the work done was of importance to the whole of New Zealand, and that the results obtained must even react on the agriculture of other countries. He quoted many instances of the enormous saving to other countries caused by research work in connection with agriculture, and mentioned a very large number of problems, hitherto unsolved, which are of the highest importance to the farmer and fruitgrower, and which might well be taken up by the officers of the institute. , .. Professor Easterficld s evidence in chief and in cross-examination lasted,' nearly an hour and a half. He explained how it. was that the petition had received such enthusiastic support by public men throughout-New Zealand, saving that visitors to the Institute had seen its work and had gone away filled with enthusiasm, and unable to keep liie good news to themselves./ I he Canterbury Progress League, had reported that their visit to the Institute had been the great privilege of their recent tour. The report by the I arhamentary Committee, headed by Sir -L H- Lar-nilhei'-S on the Improvement ol -Agriculture in New South Wales, «pokc m glowing' terms of the Institute; Major Belcher, of, He British Empire Exhibition Mission, was equally enthusiastic in bis opinion given to tlie press reporters; amt I,tie Sydney Bulletin bad commended Mr Cawthron s example to those who wished to benefit agucultn c in Now South Wales. In explaining the nature of Urn work of the titute, Professor Easterficld gave evidence as to finance, and as J 1.,e qualifications number - M Id ilall, to whom be gave great credit ioi me work earned out. He explained, vrith the aid of statistics and ijij- i graphs, the work done by Mr X. ivw fun ten it oral Chemist, __ m commotion with soil sun cy and ume svudi.es, and gave particulars ot experiments on the needs of dilfeient yaueus ot apples, showing that by salable treatment ol the soil an increase of per acre per annum in the value Ot the iruit grown on some 5000 acres might oe looked' tor. Work dona in conr.ect ion with general agriculture <«« the I moutere Hills was referred to, and the met that unless the land is improved by I treatment many of the settlers must throw up their holdings and the laud, probably revert to manuka. Interesting nilonuaiiou "was also given with regard l t o' cool Storage of fruit, utilisation of {'tax waste, and the study of mineral oils. Other points touched on were l the utilisation of recently reclaimed Jam! and the growth of lucerne under varying conditions. He referred also 1 to tihe large quantity of work of various l kinds done for fanners throughout New Zealand, to the public lectures given by members of the staff, and to the various pamphlets issued by the Institute. He said tin’s might be described as truly educational . work, and contended further that, it ' was truly national. Dr Xillyard summed up in a happy manner the work of the Biological Department of the Institute, and emphasised tiie point that every line of economic research undertaken was of national importance. He eulogised the 1 efforts ot Dr K. M. Curtis, the Mycologist, to cope with the black spot on apples and pears and the brown rot of stone fruit, and slated that the discoveries already made in these two diseases Mould form the foundation of any new methods of control to be adopted. Miss Uadis was also working on diseases of

potatoes, tomatoes and -other agricultural crops and fruit. Turning to the entomological work, he stressed point that the Institute was endeavouring to educate the people of New Zealand as to the value of the biological method o! control of insect pests by their natural enemies. Two things had to be remembered about this work; firstly, that there were only two types of insects which could be safely introduced into a country with the certainty that they would not change their habits and themselves become injurious, viz., the internal parasite of a pest insect. and also the predatory enemy typo whose fond consisted wholly of the pest insect or its early stages; secondly, that a considerable number of failures must regarded as inevitable, owing to the difficulty of acclimatising the introduced insects and getting them accustomed to their new conditions; but one real success would outweigh many failures, for the work done by these beneficial insects would be done thoroughly and would not cost the community anything financially. Taking the woolly aphis as an example of a pest of national importance, he at once interested the Committee in the success which had followed the attempt to introduce the natural enemy, an internal parasite named Aphelions mali, and rapidly outlined the means by which this insect had been successfully introduced without its own enemies, which arrived with it, but were stopped and eliminated before it was allowed to go free. Applications were now coming in from one end of New Zealand to the other for consignments of Aphelinus, and it was already successfully established m Hawke’s Bay ns well as in Nelson province, As indicating the national character of the entomological work, ho instanced the following problems which were at present receiving the attention at the Institute: —Mealy Bug, Gall Ghalcid of eucalyptus (both found in many parts of the Dominion); Golden Oak Scale, very bad in Canterbury; earwig, a serious pest in Otago; and that widespread agricultural pest, the Grass-grub. Ho also pointed out how the work was having its effect even tar beyond the Dominion, and that in return for help which he had been able to give the American entomologists, they in their turn were helping to solve New Zealand’s problems by searching for and sending over the special beneficial insects which we wanted to acclimatise here, _ Asked whether the Institute would bo contented to accept £2OOO per annum subject to its being spent on work ot national value, the Director of the Institute stated that the Trustees would be agreeable to accept this solution of the difficulty. report expected this AFTERNOON FAVOURABLE RECOMMENDATION PROBABLE (From our Parliamentary Corresponded) WELLINGTON. This Day. The report on ilia petition regarding stamp duty on the Cawthron bequest is expected this afternoon. Mr Atmoro slates that the committee will probably recommend the granting of an annual subsidy of £2OOO provided the amount is devoted to research of national im-