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253. No less important than the above, and of more immediate application, is the maintenance of liaison with overseas research organizations in Europe, as well as in America and Empire countries. Such research as that undertaken— By Burger of Zurich on erosion : By Larsen of Denmark on tree-breeding : By Guinier and Pourtet of Nancy on poplars : By Naslund of Stockholm on yield and increment: By Romell of Stockholm on forest root competition : By Bjorkman of Stockholm on Mycorrhiza and forest pathology : By Pavari of Florence on exotic species acclimatization : By Ilvessalo of Helsinki on forest survey : By Kalela of Helsinki on forest root competition and regeneration,— are important, but isolated examples of work worthy of closer study by those who now or in the future may specialize in similar research in New Zealand. 254. The International Union of Forest Research Organizations, which was represented at the third World Forestry Congress by Dr. Burger of Zurich, is commended for its work, and it is recommended that the New Zealand Forest Research Institute should seek membership of this Union. 255. Forestry Research of a High Order Involves the Careful Selection of Young Foresters and Subsequent Intensive Training Under Eminent Scientists. —In the initial establishment of a Research Institute the recruitment of some experienced specialists from other countries is often unavoidable. This is, however, a temporary expediency, and it has been the experience of long-established European research institutions that each country must in the main expect to select and provide adequate training for its own research foresters. 256. It is recommended that this conclusion be accepted in principle by the New Zealand Government and that young outstanding foresters and technicians who have already proved their research potentiality under New Zealand conditions should from time to time be seconded, preferably on scholarship exchange basis, to suitable overseas research Institutes to obtain breadth of outlook and wider research experience. A long-term policy of training research officers in forestry and forest products under conditions which attract the most suitable men should be the basis of the development of a National Forest Research Institute. APPENDIX (1) THE COMMERCIAL FORESTRY EXAMINATION : A SPECIALITY OF FINNISH FORESTRY EDUCATION In Finland more than in any other country economic life is dependent on forestry. Hence it is natural that forest sciences and the highest forestry education have been devoted the most attention, and that they have —one might say of necessity—developed quite far. This applies particularly to education in silviculture, forest mensuration, and technology of logging and forest products. Far-reaching work has been carried out in all these branches in other parts of the world too, and the results arrived at are remarkable, but in one line of forestry education Finland has come to play a pioneering role, as it were. Just because Finland is so dependent on her forests, in her international trade in particular, she has had to devote a great deal of attention, in the sphere of University education, to the commercial side of forestry. Tendencies similar in their aim have earlier been apparent in France and Germany, with the emphasis, however, on the technical side. The statute passed in Finland in 1944 on the new Forestry Examination of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of Helsinki University created the first actual course of study in the world—requiring four to five years of study—the aim of which was to endow skilled personnel with a University degree to tackle the economic problems of the timber trade and forestry. Theoretically, there had naturally been other means too of organizing the specialized economic education required in this important branch. Commercial and economic education had previously been imparted in Finland by three Universities and three commercial colleges. Nevertheless, the decision taken was no doubt the correct one, being based on the assumption that the man who will be actively concerned with the export of timber must also know a great deal of the side of forestry with which the forestry examination is concerned —on which the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry

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