WOOL RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24911, 26 June 1946, Page 8

WOOL RESEARCH

VALUE OF CO-ORDINATION EMPHASISED The Press ” Special Service DUNEDIN, June 25. That the work of the New Zealand Woollen Mills Research Association had contributed about £250,000 to the Dominion’s economy in the _ last four years was quoted in illustration of the value of co-ordinated research when an inspection was made of the asso> ciation’s laboratories at the University of Otago to-day. The inspection was made by members of the New Zealand Wool Board and the recently-constitu-ted Sheep and Wool Research Advisory Committee, and it comprised an examination of the increasing activities of the association and their relation to manufacture. The morning was spent in the laboratories, and in the afternoon a visit was made to the Roslyn Woollen Mills, where wool was followed through the 47 processes necessary to production of the finished article. The foundation of the research association had been regarded with a certain amount of scepticism in some quarters, the chairman of the executive committee, Mr W. R. Carey, said in welcoming the visitors, but it had proved to be the best investment made by the industry in the last decade, and perhaps the best in any decade. Considerable progress had been made, and it was hoped that there would be a great deal more. The estimate that the application of laboratory conclusions to the processes of manufacture had contributed about £250.000 to the Dominion’s economy in the last four years was made bv the chief research chemist. Mr R. V. Peryman. It had bon possible, he said, to lengthen the life of woollen articles, and to reduce the amount of waste in manufacture to an extent which had already justified the association’s work.