VALUE OF RESEARCH

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 81, 2 October 1931, Page 9

VALUE OF RESEARCH

A NEED OF INDUSTRY

WHERE THINGS GO WRONG

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evenini Post.") > CHBISTCHURCH, Ist October.

The decline of the New Zealand flti( and kauri gum industries might have) been prevented by scientific research! and the application of scientific methods, claimed Dr. H. G. Denha% Professor of Chemistry at Canterbury; College, in an -addi'ess.' on "The Scientific Control of Industry" at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Employers* Association. In a country like New; Zealand it was almost impossible for & relatively small business concern tot maintain a research staff, he said, ljufc this might possibly be overcome by; several industrial concerns establishing a fellowship to work out at a university college a problem affecting them all. . : ■

Taking the flax industry as an: example, : Professor Denhain said that nobody .questioned the quality of New; Zealand phbrmiuni fibre for many purposes, and yet it had practically disappeared from the Home market, unabl*1 to face the competition of cheaper, and*, in some cases, more satisfactory substitutes.

Had' those engaged in this industry) taken a long-range view of their ,prob« lems, and invested steadily in scientific research as applied to their mechanical bleaching, and utilisation, problems, it was possible that the industry woulc|i not have fallen into its present parlou# state. :.■.-•: ■' . '' We rested content in the belief thai in kauri gum we possessed a natura) asset of great value, whicM was indispensable for the manufacture of certain varnishes," continued Diy Denham. "But team-work during th» past few years has resulted in there; being, put upon the market synthetio materials which are cheaper and better than the average kauri gum, and our market for this commodity ha? practice ally disappeared. Had a small levy oni the export value of this material been. collected in the past and devoted'tq financing research into problems associ* ated with this gum, the position might well have been reversed."