SOIL CONSERVATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23259, 31 January 1939, Page 12

SOIL CONSERVATION

STUDY IN AUSTRALIA PROGRESS IN DOMINION SIR THEODORE RIGG'S VIEWS [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Monday "The importance of soil conservation is now being realised in Australia and steps are being taken ..to conserve soil by afforestation, by limitation of stock on dry pasture areas and by river control measures like those that are necessary here in New Zc-aland," said the director of the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, Sir Theodore Rigg, in an interview to-day on his return by the Awatea after attending the recent science congress in Canberra. Sir Theodore and tho mycologist at the Cawthron Institute, Dr. Kathleen Curtis, represented the institute at the congress and were naturally chiefly interested in the agricultural sections. Among the subjects discussed was the soil erosion problem in Australia and reference was made also to the problem in the Dominion. Already the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in New Zealand had set up a committee to investigate the problem. Sir Theodore said. The problem should receive the careful consideration here that it had received in Australia. Sir Theodore said there had also been a ver;; interesting symposium of papers on pasture problems in Australia and 'on virus diseases, which were equally as important to New Zealand as to Australia. "One of the most valuable opportunities the congress provided was that it enabled mo to meet my colleagues in agricultural science in Australia," Sir Theodore said. "On the animal side agricultural science in Australia is becoming quite strongly organised and it is certainly very necessary for New Zealand to take up work on a comparable scale. It is partly a question of finance and partly of organisation, requiring expert assistance." At the congress Sir Theodore mot Sir John Russell, director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station and of the Imperial Bureau of Soil Science, England, and Professor J. A. Prescott, head of the Waite Agricultural Research Institute, University of Adelaide. MR. H. O. WELLS' SPEECHES COMMENT BY DELEGATES [ill* TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION] < WELLINGTON, Monday General agreement that the highlights of the recent science congress at Canberra had been provided by Mr. H. G. Wells was expressed by New Zealand delegates to the congress who returned to Wellington this afternoon by tho Awatea. The conference, they said, was very well organised and attended. Mr. Wells' speeches were well delivered, although some of his less fortunate utterances were made the most of, said Dr. E. Kidson, one of tho returning delegates. Professor N. V. Sidgwick, professor of chemistry at Lincoln College, Oxford University, who attended the congress, agreed that the comment the Australian Prime Minister made on Mr. Wells' reference to dictators would not worry Mr. Wells very much. Professor Sidgwick will spend three weeks in the Dominion, visiting Wellington, Nelson, the Franz Josef Glacier, Christchurch, Rotorua and Auckland before returning to England via America.