CEREAL RESEARCH WILL CONTINUE AT LINCOLN COLLEGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18466, 18 May 1928, Page 4

CEREAL RESEARCH WILL CONTINUE AT LINCOLN COLLEGE.

NO INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFICERS OF STATION TO SHIFT QUARTERS. Per Press Association. TIMARU. May 17. The Hon O. J. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture, arrived here to-day from the south. Referring to an article which he had seen in a city newspaper in regard to cereal research, the Minister said that there was not one thing correct in the article, which said that the Government, for some obscure reason, had decided to locate its cereal research station at Massey College, Palmerston North, and to transfer the staff of the Canterbury branch to the north, two officers having already received notice to proceed to the North Island.

The Minister said: “ This is quite wrong. No instructions have been issued to any officers of the research staff to proceed to the Nfcrth Island, and there is no intention whatever of transferring cereal research work from Lincoln College to Massey College. This is the first I have heard of the matter. The cereal research work will be conducted at Lincoln College, where it should be. Such work ought to be conducted in the province where most of the cereals are grown, and that is what is going to happen.” “ Evidently,” said Mr Hawken, “ the critics are confusing cereal research with plant research. There is an area of fourteen acres at the Massey College for plant research, and I understand that the research department is negotiating for a much larger area of land for cereal research at Lincoln.”

The article also compared the salaries at Massey College with those at Lincoln. The Minister said that he had nothing to do with the salaries, these being in the hands of the governing council. Mr Hawken added: “It is a difficult task to dovetail the different duties of the various departments and to decide just what work each should do, but no good can come of unwarranted criticism. I fully appreciate the fact that each must do the particular work most suited to it, and I hope that, as time goes on, the research stations and the Department will work together with the common aim of increasing production in New Zealand.”