Several articles written by Mary Sutherland B.Sc. Forestry 1916
The image is a photograph of the small memorial plaque located in Whakarewarewa Forest, Rotorua, NZ.
In Vivien Edwards’s illuminating book on the life of Mary Sutherland, the first female forestry B.Sc. graduate (see Forestry Memories Photograph No 4612 and this link to Summerfield UK distributers - https://www.summerfieldbooks.com/product/a-path-through-the-trees-mary-sutherland-forester-botanist-womens-advocate/), the reader can clearly see in her working life she met with many challenges.
On completing her university training and in the WW1 period she worked on Corrour Estate in charge of a team of women forestry workers carrying out nursery and planting operations. She did work for a short period with the Interim Forestry Authority and then the Forestry Commission in a research capacity but was made redundant in 1922 along with quite a number of other forestry personnel following the severe financial cuts to government expenditure known as the Geddes axe. After moving to New Zealand she was employed as a central office Forest Assistant mainly in research work in the New Zealand Forest Service until 1933 when the severe financial restraints facing the country caused the shutdown of normal forestry operations and many staff were paid off including Mary.
The independent New Zealand characteristic flourished well in the NZ Forestry Service and each Conservator zealously guarded their territory and managed it in a manner that they believed was appropriate. Intervention from Head Office was at best tolerated and perhaps, shall we say, not openly encouraged! Mary was placed in a very difficult position when sent out from Head Office to the various locations to do 'studies' and 'observations'. It is a real testament to her character that she achieved her instructed objectives in a friendly and open manner, earning guarded respect in many locations and completed an enormous volume of work.
What of the character and the quality of her work? Below are but four examples of published articles by Mary (in this case transcribed from forestry journals) and readers may judge her resolve, eye for detail and ability to discern where improvements could be achieved. Did the Forestry Commission lose a potential research forester who could have assisted say the eminent Mark Anderson and perhaps even taken on his role when he left the FC on the first occasion?
First Article - Transcribed from Transactions of Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society Vol 32 (1) 1918 P 81-84
Women's Labour in Forestry,
By MARY SUTHERLAND, B.Sc. (For.)
In consequence of the universal shortage of labour, the employ¬ment of women in various branches of forestry work has been an innovation employed m many districts during the last twelve months. Formerly, women's labour for nursery work and planting was the rule on many estates, but in later years the practice has become much restricted, and the work is now done by the permanent staff of foresters.
Obviously, there is much of the work of the forest labourer which can only be done by men, and though, under present conditions, women are undertaking light felling and much of the work in connection with big timber felling, their employment in this is probably not sound forestry from the economic point of view. Yet there is much of the labour in the formation and tending of woodlands which economically can and should he done by women. If they were employed on all the lighter forms of estate forest work, the staff of men foresters could give more time to the heavy work necessary for the systematic tending of grown woods, and the work of the estate could thus be carried on in such a way as to include various operations which at present are often neglected, and as they result in increased value of the woods, are financially justifiable. This would, naturally, make an increase in the wages bill, as women's labour should be on the same basis as men's, ie equal pay for equal work - but this expenditure would he returned in the increased profits.
Where work can be done equally well by the women, it appears waste of labour to put men on to it, at the risk of having to neglect important work in woods which can only be performed by men. In view of increased afforestation, and the hoped-for improvement in the management of woodlands in this country after the war, this mailer is of great economic importance.
The question then arises as to the relative value of men's versus women's labour in various forestry operations, and data should be collected systematically at the present time in all places where women are how carrying on different kinds of work in connection with forestry. It is the aim of this article to give an account of one experiment in the employment of women foresters in Scotland, in the hope that it may call forth criticism and comment from foresters who have had similar experience or encourage other estates to make similar arrangements.
In January last year a gang of women was organised to do planting and nursery work on Sir John Stirling-Maxwell's estates - at first in Renfrewshire, and later on moving north to continue work on estates in Inverness-shire when the planting season came on. The girls were in charge of a forewoman who had some previous knowledge of the works and in each place the work was carried on under the direction of the forester.
It was found that for light work requiring careful manipulation and patience, such as the sorting out and counting of seedlings taken from the seed-beds, the women worked more rapidly and carefully than the men, and the placing of transplants in lining-out and planting operations was thoroughly and carefully done by them. In several heavy operations, results showed that women labour alone was not economic, as, although they could perform the work, the cost was increased by the longer time taken over it, whereas when working in conjunction with men the operations were better distributed and the work satisfactorily performed.
The following figures may be interesting:—
NURSERY WORK
Sorting out, counting seedlings, and putting into bundles:
Work done by women ... 3 bundles.
Work done by Men .... 2 bundles
Lining-out 2-year seedling larch:
2 men + 3 women averaged 4320 plants per day (7 hrs).
In this case the trenching was done by the men, the girls placing the plants and helping in filling in, etc., and working by "breaking the line."
PLANTING
Pit-planting in moderately heavy soil:
Holing and planting - 1 woman did 200 per day (7 hrs.).
Holing alone (from one test only) – 1 woman did 230 per day
This work was carried out by a different squad of girls, who were unused to manual work, and is not representative.
Pit-planting - Belgian system of peat-planting:
With circular spade - average 130 per girl per day.
Notch-planting, with Mansfield spade on rocky ground:
Douglas 2-year 1-year seedlings – alone 1 girl planted 180 per day.
This was not satisfactory, owing to the difficult ground being worked on, and the following method was adopted, viz. each man worked with a girl, cutting the notch, while the girl placed and firmed the plant.
Average for each worker – 290 plants per day
Larch 2-year 2-year seedlings:
Per couple, average ... 635 per day.
Highest average … 850 per day
Average for 1 man alone … 600 per day
The work was typical of such as would he required for afforestation on many areas in Scotland, and the girls proved that they could stand severe weather conditions without interruption to their work.
Besides this part of the work the girls carried on pruning- in nursery lines and in young plantations – e.g. the removal of double leaders and spreading growth liable to snow damage; thinning and weeding in young plantations by sawing down and removing weed-growth. Actual figures for the amount done are not available for comparison- in one case about four acres of a 15-year-old larch plantation were thinned and cleared by six girls in 4½ days. This type of work appears very suitable for the woman forester, and figures for labour thus expended would be valuable.
In view of the increased demand for planting labour this season, the above results from actual experience may be useful. Since giving up this work, the writer has been able to compare results with those obtained for a gang of women working on the Liverpool Corporation Catchment Area in Wales, which agree with those obtained in Scotland in showing that, while the employment of women in heavy work, such as trenching, etc., is not profitable, in the lighter work of the nursery and plantations, given good conditions for work and reasonable hours the labour of women will be a valuable factor in the future of British forestry.
Second Article - Transcribed from Quarterly Journal of Forestry Vol XVI 1922
NOTES ON NURSERY PRACTIC IN RELATION TO DROUGHT
In view of the failure of many nursery crops owing to the abnormal weather conditions last year, some notes on precautionary and preventive measures may suggest methods for trial in this season's sowing.
The first point which was emphasised last year was the advisability of getting all seed sown as early as possible in the season. Sowings in April were able to take advantage of moisture still left in the upper parts of the soil, and also of the little rain which did fall during the latter part of the month.
It is apparent that treatment of seed before sowing has some influence in increasing the nursery germination percentage and in accelerating the rate of germination.
This treatment may take the form of either (a) pregermination of seed or (b) soaking seed for a definite period before sowing. The pregermination process is very satisfactorily carried out as follows:- The seed is thoroughly soaked in water for one or two days, and when it has absorbed as much as possible the surplus is poured off, leaving the damp seed heaped to a depth of three or four inches in a fairly water¬tight receptacle. The seed is turned over periodically during the next two or three days to prevent any part drying up, and about the fourth day is placed out in the sun during the daytime, the mass being still turned occasionally, and the surface kept moist by sprinkling with sun-warmed water. The heat generated in the mass of seed, hastened by the warmth of the sun, accelerates germination, and in five or six days from the start the skins of the seed have burst and the seed is ready for sowing. Germination being started before the seed is put in the ground, the seedlings appear above ground within a short time after sowing - four to five days in some cases. A disadvantage of this may be the danger to seedlings, thus forced on, of a pro¬longed drought occurring just as they emerge from the ground. Contradictory results relative to this question have been obtained. In Scotland the danger may be unim¬portant; under conditions in South of England this occurred, and further trial is necessary along with shelter. If pregerminated seed is sown early, and followed by showery weather, the treatment probably increases the quality of the seedlings, as they are above ground and starting growth two or three weeks earlier than seed sown dry. The period of soaking required varies with different species. For spruce and pines 7 to 10 days are indicated, while the opinion that Douglas requires about three weeks is supported. It is important when soaking seed for sowing to change the water constantly; this allows of aeration of the swelling seeds and prevents damage by fungus attack.
The condition of the ground at the time of sowing is important; there should be enough moisture in the upper layers to maintain a capillary flow from lower down. Under the conditions of last season watering the bed some time before sowing was not sufficient, and it is a good precaution, therefore, in the absence of rain, to water the beds thoroughly for a few days preceding sowing. To increase the moisture retaining power of the soil, it is important to roll the seed¬beds either immediately before sowing the seed or after covering.
After the seed is sown there arises the question, in relation to drought, as to the necessity for providing either artificial watering or shelter for the coming crop. Under normal conditions the necessity for either will be questioned by many. With last season's weather the necessity for one or other was fully demonstrated. The choice becomes to a certain extent an economic one, and depends on the type of shelter employed and the intensity of watering possible.
In estate nurseries a type of shelter employed with small initial cost is branches stuck in the ground to protect the surface of seed-bed from the sun's rays. In this case labour is expended on a temporary measure, but where raising from seed is an annual practice a permanent type of shelter is cheaper in the end. There are three types which may be recommended as having stood the test of last season, viz., rolls of split chestnut fencing, bound with wire, leaving-approximately ½in, inter-space; rolls of 1in. builders' laths tacked on to cotton webbing, spaced at ½in. intervals and also at 1in. intervals. These coverings are spread on a staging raised about 12 in. above the ground, and the cost of each per square yard of bed covered is as 23 : 29 : 23 pence, compared with branches at a cost of 6d. per square yard.
The efficacy of the first two types was clearly greater than that of either branches or various textile coverings; their durability remains to be seen, but deterioration during one year of summer and winter exposure is not appreciable. A type of shelter which has possibilities is one framed to imitate tree-shade by tying branches horizontally on to a post and wire framework stretched 6 ft. to 7 ft. above the ground; this allows of sowing and weeding being carried out underneath. The shelter gives a less dense shade than low types, but results of sowing spruce, Scots pine, and larch under it indicate its usefulness. The cost of this shelter is very low, erection and material being- under 9d. per square yard, but maintenance remains to be seen.
The provision of artificial watering without shelter has two disadvantages in a dry season. Seed-beds watered in dry weather, even after sundown, tend to become caked on the surface, and this is disastrous to the little seedling's when they are just pushing up out of the ground. Secondly, many deaths occurred to seedlings in watered, unsheltered seedbeds after they had got above the ground. These either withered up entirely and died off or else the seedling shrivelled up at the base of the stem, exactly at ground level, the green seedling falling over and dying. The latter damage was probably due to actual burning of the hypocotyl due to the intense heat radiated from the ground surface. These facts indicate that for weather conditions of 1921 surface watering is not sufficient to conserve enough moisture in the upper parts of the soil to enable the seed-lings to live and thrive after getting above ground.
The efficacy of shelter without watering has been strikingly shown this season with regard to larch and Sitka spruce. Whereas in practically every case the unsheltered larch crop has been an utter failure, seed sown dry at the end of April and immediately protected by either split chest¬nut or ½-inch-spaced lath shelter has produced a practically full crop of strong fine seedlings. Sitka spruce also responded in a marked degree to shelter treatment.
The importance of immediate and daily watering was shown in the increased germination of Douglas seed. Compared with either watering every few days or the use of shelter without water, the growth of seedlings under the intensified irrigation was markedly superior.
Whether shelter or water be employed as protection against drought, it is essential that these should be applied immediately after sowing. This helps to retain the moisture already present in the soil, providing a suitable germinating bed for the seed, and in the case of shelter also acts as pro¬tection for the emerging seedlings against the strong rays of the sun.
One species - Scots pine - can apparently stand severe con¬ditions of drought; for this species germination and growth of seedling's after sowing may evidently be safely left to Nature, even under the very adverse conditions with which nurserymen had to contend during the last sowing season.
The observations given above are made solely from the point of view of prevention of loss from drought, and are based on experiments carried out by the Forestry Commission, under conditions in the South of England,
MARY SUTHERLAND, B,Sc. (For.)
Third article - Transcribed from Empire Forestry Journal 4 (1) pp.1- 6 1925
AFFORESTATION METHODS IN NEW ZEALAND.
By MARY SUTHERLAND, B.Sc. (For.)N.Z. State Forest Service, Wellington.
In 1896 the first State afforestation scheme in New Zealand was started by the Department of Lands on a site adjoining a prison camp at Naseby, Otago, while nurseries for the raising of stock were established in both North and South Islands. Work progressed slowly and surely until 1921, when the formation of the State Forest Service started a new era of increased planting activities which during the past season faulted in the formation 11,000 acres of new plantations, and a nursery stock of approximately 24,300,000 plants.
Up To the last few years the afforestation work was carried out on an approximately standard method throughout the Dominion; all planting was done by pre-pitting, the opening of pits being the summer routine work, and nursery stock was all raised by practically the same seedbed method accompanied by wrenching and lining out for one or more years, the usual age of planting stock being about three years. As in most operations of this kind, the wage sheet of recent years has made reduction in labour costs a necessity and during recent seasons cheaper adaptations to the varying conditions of soil and climate throughout the Dominion have been evolved.
Three main plantation stations are in operation at present – Rotorua, North Island: Hanmer, North Canterbury; and Tapanui, Otago - each with one or two large distributing nurseries attached, and there are, in addition, various smaller planting areas with or without nurseries, whose numbers are increasing regularly every year. The main type of land being State afforestated in New Zealand is waste land, too poor for profitable settlement, such as areas wherein the native bush has been cleared years ago for pastoral settlement and which are now becoming a menace through erosive movement, blocks of higher land in treeless regions where an available timber supply is imperative for the needs of growing settlement, And sand dune areas which cover approximately 314,000 acres on the north and east coasts of the North Island, and south and east coasts of the South Island.
The main types of land being planted fall roughly under four heads: the procedure in planting differing according to the varying conditions of each region.
CLAY SCRUB LANDS.
These are found in the Auckland province, and such areas are typical "gum land" waste land of the region. The soil is a heavy, hard clay, which in winter months is almost unworkable, while roads through such areas become impassable for weeks at a time. This land is covered generally with "manuka" (Leptosperum ericoides), a type of scrub, which in its young habit most nearly corresponds to very strong broom growth in Britain, and which in some parts reaches a height of 20ft, with stem diameter of twelve inches. Manuka wood has wonderful fuel properties, and there is usually a good market if it is possible to transport it to Auckland City, so that the clearing of areas for planting brings in a certain return. The scrub is either totally cleared and burnt or, the foliage being very light, is utilised as a shade protector, and lines about 2 feet wide are cut through it to enable planting to be carried on.
Planting is done with spade, a modified pitting method being employed. The planting season is short; the state of ground in the winter prohibiting planting in the wet season, while during summer the land bakes hard and puts newly planted stock to 16s. 4p. per acre of 8ft. lines.
PUMICE LANDS.
In contrast to these difficult establishing conditions are the wonderfully easy planting facilities of the Pumice lands comprising the country around the Rotorua thermal regions. The older plantations have been formed in two blocks of 7 and 8 thousand acres on land dotted with thermal activity, In these parts it is quite possible to take two steps from a vigorously growing larch tree and land into an evil-looking, black, boiling, sulphurous mudpool, and one wonders how a vigorous, fresh-scented larch can bear to exist in such decidedly unsalubrious surroundings! The present scene of operations is an area situated on a plateau of recent volcanic origin raised about 1000ft. above the thermal region; it is now a bare plain running l00 miles north and south - land which produces "bush-sickness" in any stock kept continu¬ously on it, and thus most unsuitable for any farming save tree-growing, for which purpose it excels. The plain is absolutely flat, allowing of planting blocks of roughly one mile by half a mile which can be planted up without much preparation; this is, however, cut up by steep, rift-like, dry gullies, which occasion much trouble in the clearing process. The vegetation is scanty, consisting of bushes of manoao (Dacrophyllum subulatum) and tauhinu (Cassinia), with weak manuka in parts, and in the gullies a heavy bracken covering. The usual preparation is therefore a "burn" safely carried out in the dry autumn conditions under close vigilance, and preparatory torch strip burning around the area; where necessary, line clearing is carried out, the aver-age labour involved on bad land being 13.3 man hours per acre.
Work at this station is carried out chiefly by Maori labour and these men show extraordinary agility and speed in the mechanical operation of notching in the trees, A gang consists of 20 or more men working on lines across a 300 acre block, the planting line varying from half a mile to one and a half miles. The alternate - at 16ft. lines are sighted and flagged in advance by two linesmen, and on open ground four lines of poles across a planting line are sufficient, the planters showing a wonderful sense of direction in carrying out the work; on uneven ground intermediate flags are inserted when necessary. The planting process consists of four operations - opening the notch (either L or T notch), taking the plant from a planting bag slung on the back and inserting it, firming, making two long steps forward with a glance for direction, the spade being flung forward to make a cut at the next spot. Time analysis for this operation gives an average of 10.37 seconds per plant; the average daily tally per man being 2,358.8 plants per eight hour day over average country (the highest tally recorded was 3,934} or 3.4 acres planted per man per day. This type of land corresponds most nearly to that of the Bagshot sand formation in the Old Country, but an extraordinary feature of the Kaingaroa Plains is the almost complete absence of streams and springs; the soil, however, never becomes entirely dry and tree-growth is extraordinarily rapid.
SOUTH ISLAND SCRUB LAND.
The Hanmer Springs area is situated on the foothills of the North Canterbury portion of the western mountain range, and the land being planted consists of open hill slopes with elevation ranging from 1,000ft. to 3,500ft., partly manuka covered with tussock grass tops, the remains of mountain beech bush filling the steep gullies.
The soil is a coarse shale loam on rotten, graywacke rock, very easily dried out and of depth varying from six inches to almost 1ft. of actual soil on a subsoil of disintegrating shale, while in many dry gullies a shingle layer tops the soil. In this area, fencing and protection against rabbits is necessary and accounts indirectly for at least 33 per cent of planting costs. Fencing is carried out over extremely rough country, where horsepacking of material is necessary over half-mile to two miles of very steep climbs; the area after fencing, is cleared, as nearly as possible, of all rabbits, by pollard poisoning, dogging, shooting, burning out of scrub gullies, etc., but in many big "wash-outs” access is impossible and these form a sort of warren.
The area is much covered with manuka scrub of smaller size than the Auckland type, and “line cutting " is necessary over a large part of the area; this is first flag-poled, then cut by contract of 4d. per chain. The block to be cleared is marked off into sections one chain wide along a boundary, and the first line is carefully poled at right angles; each man has a section and cuts eight lines on it and after cutting his first line he moves his poles 16 feel over, checking direc¬tion by a rough optical square, and this is repeated until he completes cutting his eight lines. The actual length of line cut is tallied for payment and, over an average planting block of 535 acres, 42,871½ chains were cut in 939 man days (8 hours) labour. In this instance the length of lines varied from eight chains to 36 chains and the land changed from flat, manuka and tussock-covered river terrace, to steep (60 degrees slope) heavily-covered shingle faces, difficult in some parts to keep foothold. Clearing is done with heavy slashers, men working up and down slopes, cutting stuff 10ft. to 15ft. high with average of 2ins. diameter; after lines are cut a quick fire is put through to dear up the ground - cutting before burning appreciably reduces the cost of clearing as compared with cutting after burning when the toughened manuka is a proposition to tackle.
Planting is carried out by a modified notching action, using a specially-constructed planting spade - this implement is a one-piece iron tool, with a shovel-shaped, flattened and pointed, strengthened blade with one projecting tread on one side. The pointed, broadly-tapering blade enables the planter to penetrate a layer of stony ground by working backward and forward among the stones, while in clear ground, one cut with a movement backward and forward opens a sufficient notch. Plants are carried in a galvanised planting tin, as protection is here necessary against prevalent, strong, drying, westerly winds during the planting season; stock is packed to supply dumps on the ridges and planters fill up roughly at the end of each line. The plants have been "puddled" before heeling in, and the tins enable them to be carried in liquid during dry spells. The planting operation consists of four movements - opening ground, placing in plant, firming, walking to next position, and average time per plant is 30.1 seconds. The result of labour analysis of work over the whole area tinder different conditions gave the following average figures:-
Trees planted per man per 8-hour day (walking time one way included) : —
626-650 On average good going, lower slopes to river.
450 On worst ground, steep gully, working on short lines
700 On flat, tussock ground, easy planting, but 50 minutes’ walk from camp
750 On flat, tussock ground, easy planting, nearcamp. Average output over whole area.
One acre planted in 9 man hours.
TUSSOCK LAND
This is the general type of planting land in Otago, South Canterbury and parts of Southland. The country is made up of small ranges of rounded hills, rising into rocky tops: tussock grassland (Poa ceaspitosa and Festuca novae-zealandiae) clothes all the foothills; the remains of bush being represented by southern beech species in the gullies which have escaped fire. The lower areas in this country were the early settle¬ments with arable farming on the flat and sheep on the upper hill country; now State planting is gradually extending on to the waste, poor land of the higher hills from 1,000ft. to 3,000ft. elevation. Climatic conditions here are severe - hard winters with snow and late and early frosts; hot summer with a tendency to drought months; the general soil is a stony coarse clay formed by breaking down of the shale rock which it overlies. In winter the upper soil is sticky but freely workable; not retentive of moisture, and easily drying out in drier parts of the year when, on occasion, it bakes hard and cracks.
Clearing for planting in this region is practically nil - in exceptional portions where manuka has come in on tussock land, this has to be line cut and burnt, but pure tussock is burnt, preferably in late autumn (March-April) or spring, immediately before planting; tussock land burnt two or three years previously can be planted, but on the denser snow grass areas this must be burnt just previous to planting. Thick bracken occurs on some sheltered slopes but is removed around each seedling when planted.
Planting is carried out in lines with preparatory poleing ahead of the planting gang, one pole-man in this country keeping 10 or 15 men planting. In this type of land mattock planting is the method employed, using 4½1bs. pick mattock, with drawn-out blade, making a vertical cut of 8in. to 9in. depth, work proceeding uphill only. The procedure consists of five movements: local preparation of the soil by removing matted grass tuft or cutting away bracken where necessary, opening and breaking up the soil by either one or two cuts with a last, straight-back levering cut, insertion of the plant and placing soil around roots with one movement of the blade, firming, walking to next plant; analysis of this work gives 33.008 seconds per plant, and an average daily tally of 630 trees per man per 8-hour day (30 minutes walking time included).
This last type of planting approaches most nearly to average moor and hill planting of the Welsh hills, and the actual planting of the North Canterbury scrub hills nearer to the mountain, rock planting in Scotland and the Lakes. The tendency is towards using seedlings for planting, and last year, one-year-old Pinus radiata (8in. to 10in,), two-year-old P. laricio (2in. to 4in.), two-year-old P. ponderosa (4in. to 5in.) were successfully established. Sand dune planting has so far been carried out mostly on experimental lines and would require special description.
The chief difficulties met with in afforestation operations in New Zealand are, perhaps, irregular configuration of the land and thus difficulty in transport of stock and material, lack of small streams or local water supplies, necessitating the packing of water for drinking and puddling plants for a considerable distance up to planting areas, the heavy preparatory clearing often necessary, heavy rabbit destruction and fencing costs, danger from drought during the first summer after planting, often beginning at the end of the planting season, and the ever-present danger of encroaching fire from land adjoining the State forest reserves.
Fourth Article - Transcribed from Forestry Vol. 9 1935
DR. LEONARD COCKAYNE, C.M.G.
THOSE members of the Society of Foresters who were out in New Zealand with the last Empire Forestry Conference and who came into contact with Dr. Leonard Cockayne, will learn with regret of his death in Ngaio, Wellington, on 8 July 1934. As one of the early ecological botanists, and chiefly as one of the few who have attempted to relate the ecology of New Zealand forests in its widest sense to the possibilities of silvicultural management, Dr. Cockayne's name must remain as a sign-post to foresters in Great Britain and elsewhere who are endeavouring to 'get back to Nature' in the rebuilding of the forests of their respective countries. Of particular interest, perhaps, to members of the Society of British Foresters, but of immense value to foresters throughout the world, is Dr. Cockayne's study of the genus Nothofagus with its resultant findings of widespread hybridism in the genus — a fact not only of botanical but of silvicultural importance in the future management of New Zealand beech forests.
As Honorary Botanist to the New Zealand State Forest Service, and as an Hon. Member of the New Zealand Institute of Foresters, Dr. Cockayne's influence was spread amongst the small working body of foresters in the Dominion; and his personal enthusiasm and directness was a definite fillip to their forestry reasoning and keenness. He could not suffer gladly those whom he considered fools, nor lukewarm helpers in his work, but to those who passed his standard of keenness, equally in disagreement as in agreement with his own views, and to younger workers, he never spared himself in guidance and encouragement.
Dr. Cockayne was a successful example of the old-style system of education - of a thorough grounding in the 3 R's, together with a classical leaven, acquired at an early age ('I was reading Greek at 6 years') which produced the man of all-round thought coupled with the ability to work out his own branch on wide, reasoned lines - his scathing indictment of our present spoonfed generation was a treat which had to be heard to be appreciated.
To New Zealand foresters his passing removes a stimulating, kindly friend whose presence on a field trip contributed much to the wit and inspiration of the party. M SUTHERLAND
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