HELPING KAURI GUM INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 104, 26 January 1935, Page 8

HELPING KAURI GUM INDUSTRY

Scientific Research’s Use PROFESSOR’S ADDRESS TO CHEMISTS Dominion Special Service. Hamilton, January 25. In his presidential address to the chemists’ conference to-day, Professor 11. G. Denham told how the kauri-gum industry, now languishing, might once more, be made prosperous through the aid of scientific research. “’Thirty years ago,” he said, “our deposits of kauri gum meant half a niillion pounds a year to the coffers of New Zealand; to-day this product is almost unsaleable. Thousands of tons of this gum have left our shores for incorporation into varnishes, lacquers, and linoleum, but, secure in the belief that Providence had made the -whole world dependent upon us for the supply of this gum, we failed to entrench ourselves when the opportunity offered. I “Failure to invest a fraction of 1 per cent, in research left us open to the attack of a synthetic product. This lack of initiative on our part, coupled with careless methods of extraction and of grading, has played its part in stimulating research into synthetic substitutes. A Brighter Future. “Those engaged in this industry shut their eyes to the lessons taught by indigo and alizarin, and refused td believe that a team of scientific workers inspiringly led, will slowly but surely wear down the resistance offered by any natural product, sooner or later its secrets stand revealed, and after that tlie fate of the natural product is sealed. 'The day of synthetic resins si.-elt doom to our kauri-gum fields. “However, there is a possibility that a natural product may prove unreplacable for some specific purpose, and the Department has therefore placed the services of one of its staff at the service of the industry, and there is yet a chance that this product may see a brighter future. “By extracting the gum with a solvent, Dr. Hosking has shown that a purified product of standard quality can be commercially extracted from tlie natural gum, and there seem reasonable grounds for hope that an in dustry which will absorb a considerable number of unemployed workers may again bo built up, and we shall be able to meet the competition of our synthetic rivals by putting on the market a very pure and standard gum at a payable price.”