19 February 1985Edmund Cutler retires from the Department of Soil Science

People will hear more about the University of Broken River, a conservative institution weighted down with a bureaucratic administration, now that Lincoln College Reader in Soil Science Edmund Cutler is retiring.

He will use some of his retirement time to write the occasional pamphlet - or maybe something longer - as a satirical
tilt at those people in university institutions "who take themselves too seriously."

But he is not tilting at Lincoln College, where he has worked since 1967 as lecturer in pedology in the soil science department.

He has had a happy time in his 18 years at the college and has enjoyed working with his academic colleagues.

But those working with him know he has a dry humour, and can't resist sending up any particularly pompous communication that comes across his desk.

On his study wall notice board he has pinned a clipping from the Cass Advertiser of April 1 1983.

This is an obituary of James Cohen Bartlebury, former Professor of Petroglyphics and Archaegronomy at the University of Broken River.

Born in India, Professor Bartlebury came to New Zealand at the age of 13, went to Torlesse College and the University of Broken River, gained double honours in classics and physics in 1933 and went on to gain other honours such as the Stonehenge Fellowship to the University of Wiltshire.

Copies of the clipping are collector's items around Lincoln College.

He has no difficulty in getting his satirical pieces printed : he pulls out his tabletop printing press, sets up the type, and gets rolling.

But he is even better known for his publications on soil science ; since being at Lincoln he has produced two highly-regarded books.

These are Soil Resources Surveys Interpretation and Application, published in 1977, and Soil Classification in New Zealand, published last year.

Before working at Lincoln he was with the Soil Bureau, and during his time there wrote Soils in the South Island of New Zealand, and a major bulletin on South Island soils.

He started life on a small Waimate farm, where his family grew small seeds, apples and strawberries.

He began his education in Waimate, continued this in Christchurch, and then went on to the University of Canterbury in 1942.

Emerging from the university with a Bachelor of Science degree, he looked around for a job.

"The war was still on at that time, but because of war regulations there weren't many jobs," he said.

He got a job in the Soil Bureau in Christchurch " because I thought this would be good to do, until the war was over."

But he got to like working in soils, and stayed ; doing soil surveys in Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

He moved down to Timaru and then on to Dunedin, where he spent most of his time in the Soil Bureau.

"In the latter part of my time with the Soil Bureau I was in charge of preparing a general survey of South Island soils for publication.

"That was the main bulletin on South Island soils - report no. 27 - and I spent time out in the field as well as getting the maps and other material
prepared."

By the time the bulletin was published Mr Cutler had moved on to his new job at Lincoln College in 1967.

He had been with the Soil Bureau from 1945, with the only break a year in England in 1952-53 on an exchange
scheme.

The exchange was between the N.Z. Soil Bureau and the British Soil Survey, and he was the first pedologist to go.

In England he worked on soil surveys to get experience in British methods, and to see something of the country.

He got to Lincoln just as the college was starting to grow, and he had only five or six colleagues in soil science.

Today there are 12 scientists on the academic staff.

No women were taking soil science, and there were few post-graduate students.

"One of the striking changes here at the college is that there are now many more women students," he said.

But soil science, even with more women on campus, is still predominantly male.

After working in a bureaucracy, Mr Cutler said he found the atmosphere at the college very friendly, and
this had not changed.

However, he laments that because there are many more students now getting to know them well is not as easy as back in 1967.

"There is also a wider range of students now, with a broadening of horticultural courses, landscape courses, parks and recreation, and many more post-graduate students.

"This was only a small campus when I came, but there has been a big building program and the character of the campus has changed completely. 

"When I first came nearly all the staff was housed either in Ivey Hall, the old soil science building, or in tin huts nearby

"Sometimes in lectures the students couldn't hear what was being said because of the noise of the rain beating on the roof."

Mr Cutler said another big change was the improvement in teaching aids ; in the 1960s the only aids were blackboards and hand-fed slide projectors.

He was senior pedologist when he left the Soil Bureau for the opportunity, as he put it, of greater academic freedom at Lincoln College.

"I'd had connections with the college before I arrived ; I had joined field trips that my predecessor, Bernard Elphick, used to run in Otago," he
said.

"And I was involved with Professor Walker Science former Professor of Soil in some research projects."

Mr Cutler said he would not be severing all connections with the college, even though he was retiring.

He still has to write up some papers, and this should maintain his links with the college for the next year or so.

As well as leaving the college, Mr Cutler will also be leaving the University of Canterbury where he has lectured
in soil science at the School of Forestry since 1969.

Having the chance of becoming involved with the School of Forestry was another inducement for his joining Lincoln in 1967.

"I knew the School of Forestry was starting up, and I had worked in forests a lot on soil surveys."

Mr Cutler worked with well-known people in New Zealand forestry, such as Jack Holloway, a distinguished forest ecologist and a specialist on this country's forests.

In retirement Mr Cutler will be gardening, wood-turning, paper-making, printing and keeping his satirical pen sharp. Mildred Patience Foulkes-Smyth, retired, with a Diploma of Social Science from the University of Broken River, who was dux of the Cass College for Girls in 1924, will again join with retired Colonel Mortimer Ralph Stringe and lawyer Bruce Trevor Crudd, former Minister for Arts and Statistics, on the voting paper for the University of Broken River Council.

More may be learned about the Campburn Rock drawings, found last century in the Trelissick Basin by Scottish shepherd Sandy McBriar, whose notes and sketches of the drawings were found in a rusty biscuit tin in Thomas Creek.

Mr Cutler will be setting up his Adana printing press, stacking his home-made paper - much of it recycled from old university calendars - and putting the Cock and Bull imprint on his work.

And he might even find time to produce another mini-book, such as the 20-page Some Early Observations on the Soils of New Zealand, a very worthwhile example of his printing skills.

Further information from Mr Edmund Cutler, Soil Science Department, Lincoln College, Canterbury 8150, New Zealand.