Soil Bureau

The campus that Soil Bureau built, currently occupied by The Learning Connection, a private tertiary institution, with Taita College fields in foreground

New Zealand Soil Bureau was a division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research specializing in soil-related research and development. Originally formed as the 'soil survey group' of the 'Geological Survey,' they became the 'Soil Survey Division' in 1936 and 'Soil Bureau' in 1945.[1] Established adjacent to Taita College on approximately 90 acres on the Eastern Hills of Lower Hutt north of Wellington,[2] the foyer featured a large mural by Ernest Mervyn Taylor depicting cloaked figure using a kō (Māori digging stick).[2] Soil Bureau competed nation-wide soil surveys of New Zealand.

The impetus for forming a separate unit related to soil science was work in the 1930s by L. I. Grange and N. H. Taylor which showed a correspondence between soil type and bush sickness in cattle, which led to the discovery that ash-based soils in the central North Island were Cobalt deficient and that cobalt-enriched salt licks could open up tens of thousands of acres to dairy farming.[3]

Soil Bureau was renamed as DSIR Land Resources in 1990 and then reformed into Landcare Research in 1992 by the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992,[4] but the name remains protected under the Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981[5]

Directors

The entranceway to the Taita campus from Eastern Hutt Road.

References

  1. ↑ Galbreath, Ross (1998). DSIR: Making Science Work for New Zealand. ISBN 0864733542.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Soil Bureau. New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Information Series No. 94. 1973.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Atkinson, J. D. (1976). DSIR's First Fifty Years.
  4. ↑ "Crown Research Institutes Act 1992 No 47 (as at 01 February 2011), Public Act Contents – New Zealand Legislation". Legislation.govt.nz. 2011-02-01. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  5. ↑ "Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981 No 47 (as at 07 July 2010), Public Act 20 Unauthorised use of certain commercial names – New Zealand Legislation". Legislation.govt.nz. 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  6. ↑ DSIR Research: DSIR50. DSIR. 1976.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Bulletin of the International Society of Soil Science: Bulletin de L ... - International Society of Soil Science - Google Books. Books.google.co.nz. 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
  8. ↑ New Zealand Soil Bureau Research Report 1984. New Zealand Soil Bureau. 1984.