-143- Monday, November 16, 1953: Applied for a Pan American booking for departure from Sydney Nov. 29 and arrival Honolulu the same day (day lost on crossing the International date line. Most of the day spent on visits to the Museum and the Her- barium. George Mack, director of the Museum, is willing to hold and look after any collections we send for the Papua/New Guinea administration. He will so advise the Gov't Secretary. Mack had much to say about a row he had this year with Ernst Mayr and George Tate. Mayr wished to employ an Australian to collect birds in Queensland for the American Museum. The man unknown to Mack (himself an ornithologist) and therefore he was unable to recommend him to the conservation authorities (Dept. of Agriculture & Stock). Permit to collect not granted. Policy is to grant, without question, permits to representatives of scientific institutions coming from abroad, but to be chary about giving permits to Australians to collect for foreign in- stitutions. Outside of scientific institutions there is not a competent or experienced bird collector in Australia today, according to Mack. Tate came into the row after reading a Mack letter to Mayr in which he was charged with blatantly publishing a report on protected mammals which were collected illegally in Queensland for A.E. These mammals, I learn today, were two specimens of Dendrolagus, Bennetti collected by Roberts on Mt. Finnegan. Talked with Francis, Blake and Smith at the Herbarium. Francis' health does not allow him to do much and he retires next June. Blake and Smith spend most of their time keeping abreast of routine, mostly work in connection with identification of weeds. Everist (Senior Asst. Botanist) is now in the near west directing aerial spraying of poison to kill brigalow. Direction of such work should hardly be the work of a botanist. Discussed with Blake experiments on soil improvement in the Wallum country of which rather sensational accounts have reached the U.S. press. Experiments with trace elements and ordinary chemical fertilizers are being carried out in different areas by Queensland Dept. of Agriculture, Queensland University, and C.S. I.R. O. There is little to show for them to date. But in the South Australia there has been success in increasing the fertility of very poor soils (80 Mile Desert?) partly at least by application of cobalt.