THE thirteenth annual report of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Zealand, which covers the year 1938–39, refers to the initiation of a number of new research activities. One of the most important of these is the formation of a Timber Protection Research Committee of the Council to direct and co-ordinate research on the preservation of timber from the attacks of wood-. boring insects and fungi. The depreciation of building securities from the attacks of these pests presents a serious problem in New Zealand, and the research programme planned by the committee contemplates work by the Entomological Division and Plant Diseases Division of the Plant Research Bureau, including biological studies of wood-infesting insects, penetration tests for wood preservatives, and toxicity tests with insects and fungi, as well as further work in the Dominion Laboratory on the analysis of wood preservatives and the chemical aspects of penetration tests.