Canadian Admires N.Z. Agricultural Research Work

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 40, 19 September 1949, Page 7

Canadian Admires N.Z. Agricultural Research Work

In the opinion of Dr W. Clayton Hopper, the retiring acting .High Commissioner for Canada, graduate students from Canada, particularly those interested in sheep and dairy husbandry and in the production of grasses and clover, could gain much from the courses and research work at Massey College and the Dairy Research Institute at Palmerston North, and he advocates the exchange of agricultural scientists between this country and Canada in those fields of research. “I wish that Canada had a scheme such as the Fulbright Plap of the U.S.A. to help finance the exchange of students and scientific workers,” said Dr Hooper in an interview, and he expressed the hope that a similar scheme could be established eventually to accomplish the same objectives.

Expert Himself Dr Hopper is himself an agricultural expert with a wide experience in many countries. His remarks concerning research in New Zealand were prompted by recent visits to the Wallaceville and Ruakura Animal Research stations, the Soil Fertility Station at Hamilton, and the Grasslands Division and Plant Chemistry Laboratory and Massey College, at Palmerston North. Research being carried on at those institutions relating to the dairy and sheep industries, also in regard to pasture production and management, he said, was equal to any being done elsewhere in the World. In some respects it was superior to what he had seen in other countries.

Outstanding work in the development of grasses and clovers had been of inestimable value to New Zealand the economy of which was so largely based on grass. Many of the techniques being employed in that programme of research showed that New Zealand’s agricultural scientists had vision, originality and skill. In the fields of animal production and disease control, Dr Hopper said, New Zealand workers were making contributions to knowledge which had an application to many other countries as well. He was glad to know that exchanges of information were being made constantly with Canadians working in similar fields. Works’ Sincerity

“The sincerity of New Zealand research workers and the genuine interest they have in their work was' evident not only in the institutions I have visited recently,” said Dr Hopper, “but also among the rank and file of technical and professional workers, those engaged in agricultural education, also among the administrators of agricultural policy. That fact has impressed me during the 10 months that I have had the privilege of living in this beautiful country.”