SORRY TO LEAVE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 282, 2 December 1935, Page 8

SORRY TO LEAVE

DR. G. H. CUNNINGHAM RESEARCH DIFFICULTIES. PALMERSTON N., Nov. 30. Dr. G. H. Cunningham, Ph.D., D.S?.. who has resigned his position as mycologist at the Palmerston North Plant Research Station, as a protest at the treatment that Las been meted out to research activities generally by the heads of the Department of Agriculture, has had 18 years of service with the Department. TVhen interviewed by a Post .representative Dr. Cunningham said that he greatly regretted the necessity for leaving the department, as he had been for so long intimately connected with the development of its scientific work. During his service he has been fortunate in securing the friendship of officers of the various divisions of the department, State Forest Service, and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and was extremely sorry to sever his connection with such a fine body of able men. Dr. Cunningham is the wor'd authority on his subject, and is the author of three books on fungi and plant diseases and 106 scientific papers. There is a possibility of his leaving New Zealand altogether.

“ DEPLORABLE THING ” BOTANIST'S COMMENT. AUCKLAND, Nov. 30. “The whole thing is deplorable, ” said Mr. T. L. Lancaster, head of the Department of Botany at Auckland University, this morning, when commenting on Dr. Cunningham’s retirement. Mr. Lancaster said he knew the Palmerston Plant Station and the two antiquated buildings, where conditions were “simply terrible.” It was de- ! plorable that in a country so dependent ion “grecnblade” so little attention I was paid to plant research. The institution at Palmerston North is absolutely vital to the prosperity of the Dominion and the sooner the Government awakens tj the official inertia the better, Mr. Lancaster added. “This is another case of losing the services of a brilliant New’ Zealander through indifference, ignorance, and apathy.”