RESEARCH WORK.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17111, 5 April 1921, Page 7

RESEARCH WORK.

LORD JELLICOE EMPHASISES ITS VALUE. (SPECIAL TO "TnE PRESS.'') NELSON, April 4. 1 Speaking at the opening of tlic'Cawthron Institute on Saturday, _ Lord Jellicoe dwelt on the yalue of scientific research. The Navy, before the war, did not take sufficient advantage of scientific knowledge to help them in the problems that lay before them. Their enemies did, and we ftiad to learn during the war from them. S n ° rt , lv after the war started, a body cal.cd the Board of Inventions and Research, under the lato Lord Fisher, was appointed to investigate problems, largely connected with submarines, that lay before the Admiraltv'and, the Navy. Ho fancied if the Navy had had the benefit of the advice of scientists at an earlier stag}, we would have been better equipped for dealing with the problems that faced us when the war began. It was no use appointing scientists to investigate the problems by themselves; and it was not untilssoldiers and scientists got together that wo began to achieve lesulte. Iti was necessary for the agriculturists i of this country to work with the scientists if best results were to be obtained. Of the value of scientific research thero could be no possible question. In the naval part of the war in the early days we were., very poorly equipped in this respect, but during the war greater strides wero made in. the direction of scientific' investigation and research. His Excellency then referred to one or two instances in which the results obtained during the war had since been turned to i.eace uses. "I want to point out," "he continued,_ "that bad sis war. is, it'had the effect, in the case of' the Navy at any rate, of sharpening everybody's wits. 'We have turned a good many of those wits,which wc sharpened during t)he war into ploughshares." The use's of directional wireless wero greatly extended, and were_ now of the greatest use in fogs, enabling ships to obtain messages from shore stations locating their position. _ Another instance was that devices which wero brought into use for tjhe destruction of submarines were being turned to use for safety in pilotage m fogs. He had no doubt, similarly, that the Army had been able to turn to peace uses many of the great inventions which science had brought to their aid during the war, and it had increased, unquestionably, the progress made in medical and surgical work. Instances of this could be aeon at Trentham Military Hospital. What science 'had done for the Army and Navy, it could equally do to help forward agriculture in New Zealand. It had been his privilege, before coming there that night, to pay a visit, all too short, to the Cawthron Institute. Ho had seen quite sufficient to know it was going to benefit the farming community of the district, and the whole of New Zealand, to an immense extent. He had seen the soil chart which had been prepared, setting out the different soils in the district. Ho was not a farmer himself, but when he did start farming, probably, in England, flic fi.'st thing ho would da would bo to apply to the Institute to know how to treat the farm he intended to grow potatoes on. (Laughter.) Ho was very deeply impressed with the Institute".