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The expenditure of the Department during the year was as follows: — Permanent Services — Head office: Publications (including the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology), Research Scholarships, and grants to Royal Society of New Zealand, Imperial Institute, and Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science £ (for completion of printing of report of Canberra meeting) .. 12,466 Dominion Laboratory (with branches) .. .. •• ■■ 21,610 .Dominion Observatory .. .. . • • • • • .. 3 ,138 Geological Survey .. .. •• •• •• 8,487 Meteorological Office .. .. ■■ •• •• 19,136 Apia Observatory .. .. . • • • • • .. 3,967 Magnetic Observatory .. .. • • ■ • • ■ 2,640 Grant to Imperial Agricultural Bureaux .. . - .. .. 6,931 Research Investigations .. •• •• •• •• 126,546 204,921 Recoveries .. .. • • ■ • • • .. 46,136 Net expenditure .. .. •• •• ..£158,785 GENERAL. As in previous years, grants were made to the following research organizations in Great Britain participating in the inter-Imperial Agricultural Research Scheme : The Imperial Agricultural Bureaux headquarters, £1,438; Cambridge Low Temperature Station, £2,000 (of which the Meat Board contributed £1,000) ; Bureau of Dairy Science, £113; Farnham House Entomological Laboratory, £750; Imperial Institute of Entomology, £450 ; Imperial Mycological Institute, £350 ; British Wool Industries Research, Torridon, £300. Collaboration with Australia. During a visit to Australia in January for the purpose of attending the Canberra meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor H. G. Denham, Chairman of the Research Council, Sir Theodore Rigg, member of the Research Council, and Mr. F. J. A. Brogan, Assistant Secretary, met the Executive of the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in order to discuss ways and means of giving fuller effect to the principle of co-operation in research-work between Australia and New Zealand, particularly by the further exchange of officers. In so far as Australia is concerned, active co-operation has been given by seconding Dr. Wiley to the Dairy Research Institute, an arrangement which has proved very successful both from the point of view of the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Dairy Research Institute. There are a number of research problems of mutual interest in which Australia and New Zealand could profitably collaborate, and it was agreed that the field of animal research offered a good starting-point. The Executive of the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research offered further co-operation with New Zealand by agreeing to allow Dr. R. B. Kelley, of the Division of Animal Health and Nutrition, to visit New Zealand in 1939 to confer with research workers, departmental representatives, and farmers' organizations in connection with sterility problems, which are matters of outstanding importance to both countries. The Dairy Board and the Meat Board in New Zealand have agreed to meet the cost of Dr. Kelley's visit, and I wish to take this opportunity of acknowledging the ready co-operation of these bodies. The Executive also offered facilities lor collaboration with. Australia in connection with standards activities, particularly in regard to the provision of testing-facilities for fundamental standards. It is felt that there are a number of useful directions in which New Zealand can reciprocate through an exchange of suitable officers and by other means, and these are now being explored with a view to action being taken in the coming year. Technical Information Bureau. While in Melbourne in January the Assistant Secretary took the opportunity of obtaining as much information as possible concerning the Technical Information Section established by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research as an essential part of its programme of research for the benefit of secondary industries. A report on this subject was presented to the Research Council in New Zealand, who agreed as to the desirability of establishing a similar type of organization in New Zealand to act as a clearing-house for the dissemination of technical information relating particularly to the development of industries, and also to take charge of the Department's library and publicity work. New Research Activities. (1) Facial Eczema.—Arrangements were made during the year for the full co-operation with the Department of Agriculture of the Soil Survey, Grasslands, and Plant Diseases Divisions of the Department in an intensive co-operative investigation of the facial-eczema problem under the general direction of the Facial Eczema Management Committee. In order to provide special staff and facilities for research relating to the chemical composition of pastures and the changes occurring under varying environmental conditions, the chemical laboratory attached to the Grasslands Division of the Plant Research Bureau was reorganized under the title of" Plant Chemistry Laboratory and placed in charge of Dr. J. Melville, formerly of the Wheat Research Institute.

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