Dominion Analyst Returns From Tour Of Investigation

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 95, 8 February 1950, Page 4

Dominion Analyst Returns From Tour Of Investigation

Mr F. J. T. Grigg, Director of the Dominion Laboratory and Dominion Analyst, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, returned recently from an overseas visit during which he investigated recent developments in chemistry and organisation of research in Government organisations, universities and laboratories m private industry, principally in Great Britain and U.S.A. In Great Britain research in the case of industry is still suffering from lack of adequate accommodation and facilities following war conditions, but the authorities are alive to the urgent need for amending this position and laboratory accommodation is receiving a high measure of priority. In U.S.A. enormous sums of money are being spent on research, an estimate of the total for one year being 2000 million dollars. Private industry is spending very large sums for fundamental as well as applied research, and some of the new laboratories are extraordinarily well equipped.

The British universities maintain a high standard in fundamental work. The number of New Zealand students in England is surprisingly large, Cambridge alone having as many as 60. A feature of universities in U.S.A. is the large amount

of sponsored applied research carried out. Another important development in U.S.A. is an emphasis ,on the study of analytical chemistry, a trend which could be followed by the University of New Zeeland to great advantage.

On the industrial side, Great Britain is recovering from war difficulties and shortages but has still some distance to go in the modernisation of plant and in the application of research findings. In U.S.A. the New Zealand visitor is staggered by the profusion and variety of raw material, fuel, transport facilities etc., available to industry. New Zealand with its limited resources can, however, be inspired to proceed with such industries as pulp and paper, and the solar salt project which could supply a basic raw material for many industries.

Special fields investigated by Mr Grigg included the subject of concrete for hydro-electric dams, mat-* ters relating to the pulp and paper industry, and forensic science on behalf of the Commissioner of Police.

More than 25,000 communities in the United States depend solely upon motor trucks for freight service, the American Trucking Associations note.