CAWTHRON INSTITUTE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 30 January 1918, Page 3

CAWTHRON INSTITUTE

IMPORTANT EESEAIICH WORK. Some information regarding the Cawthrou Institute, which is to bo established near Nelson, was placed before the Board of Governors of the iNcw Zealand Institute yesterday by the president (Professor Benhain). lie trustees appointed to administer the Gawthron bequest appointed a commission to draw up a scheme for the working of tho institute, and they are now working on the lines laid down by this commission. '•• , The institute would be erected when the war was ended close to the city ol Nelson, said Professor Benliam Hie work undertaken would be scientific research into the problems ol agriculture, particularly as affecting the growing of fruit. It was hoped that in the future agricultural problems ot all kinds would bo studied at the institute —the testing of trees, tho improvement of culture, tho chemistry and physics of soils, tho development of forest trees, etc. The work might he extended in other directions. .Hitherto no institution in New Zealand had been wholly or even mainly given up to scientific research. The Cawthron. Institute would he equipped, organised i and financed for this purpose alone. , The sum of money at the disposal of: tho trustees was about £200,000, and ; the, trustees, ivho for the most part \ wero business men, were determined; that tho annual expenses should not exceed the income from the principal, j Tho interest that was now accumulatiiiß would be used to erect the neces-1 sary buildings after tho director had been appointed, and in consultation with him. The site had already been purchased and surveyed. The control of the institute, added Professor Benliam, would be undertaken under the supervision of the trustees by an advisory board acting with tho director. The bodies represented on the advisory board would be tho Cawthron trustees, the Board ot Agriculture, the Nelson Institute, the Board of Studies of the New Zealand University and the Governors of the New Zealand Institute. It was hoped to secure as director a first-class chemist from England, but this appointment probably would not be made before the end of the war. The full staff would include experts in plant physiology and plant pathology, and economic zoology and geology, but that would bo in the future. The director at the outset would ho assisted .by a plant pathologist and an orchaTdist, to whom adequate salaries would be paid. Provision would he made for the award of scholarships, and every encouragement would ho given to students properly qualified to pursue research in agricultural matters.