RESEARCH WORKER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1938, Page 8

RESEARCH WORKER

FORMER MASTERTON GIRL’S APPOINTMENT. SURVEY OF COTTON PEST IN AUSTRALIA. An unusual opportunity of doing important research work in Queensland has been given to an ex-Masterton girl, Miss Phyllis Robertson, M.Sc., only daughter of Mr and Mrs Athol Robertson, now of New Plymouth. Miss Robertson has been appointed to carry out an investigation for the Egyptian Government on a cotton pest which does serious damage in Egypt and is present also in Queensland though to a lesser degree. She will make a survey of the most important areas in Queensland where the pest occurs and try to discover if it is held in check there by parasites, which might be suitable for introduction into Egypt. Although her headquarters will be in Brisbane Miss Robertson will travel extensively throughout North Queensland, near Rockhampton and Townsville, and also in the country south of Brisbane and on the Darling Downs. The bug which attacks the cotton plant also attacks maize, tomatoes and tobacco so that some of Miss Robertson’s “hunting” will be among these crops. She will search for larvae and young and old caterpillars and make a thorough survey of their life history and habits. The survey is being carried out through the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, although the work is being done through a grant from the Egyptian Government. .. Miss Robertson is an ex-pupil of the Masterton West School and the Wairarapa High School. She studied for two years at Otago University before going to Victoria College, where she completed her M.Sc. degree with first-class honours in zoology and top marks for the Dominion in that subject. She was awarded a National Research scholarship and proceeded to Palmerston North to make a special study of the diamond back moth. Miss Robertson has been working for the last year at the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, and before that was for two and a-half years at the Plant Research Station at Palmerston North. At both Palmerston North’and Nelson she was carrying out research work with the diamond back moth and one of her papers on this subject so impressed the Australian council that she was offered the position in Queensland.