LOSS TO SCIENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1934, Page 9

LOSS TO SCIENCE

SIR WILLIAM HARDY

NEW ZEALAND'S DEBT

The death of Sir William B. Hardy, D.S.c, LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Food Investigation Branch of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in England deprives the Empiro of a scientist; whoso services have been of outstanding value in recent years. New Zealand, in particular, has reasons to regret the passing of Sir William Hardy, for the work .of the various institutions which, he directed was intimately and actively associated wth problems affecting our main exporting industries. The., names of the Cambridge Low Temperature Besearch Station, the.Torry Research Station, Aberdeen, and Ditton Laboratory have becomo fairly familiar to New Zealanders in recent years through the leadership they have given in all matters concerned with improvement in refrigerated storage and transport. At these research stations, which were under the direction of Sir William Hardy, he had assembled a group'of brilliant scientific co-workers whom ho inspired with high ideals both as regards fundamental research and the application of the fruits of such work to the solution of pressing and important practical problems concerned with the transport and storage of perishable food products, such .as beef, mutton, fruit, and fish. Among these workers are Dr. Franklin Kidd who visited New Zealand a few years ago in connection with fruit transportation problems; and Dr. Moran whoso work on meat problems has led to important developments in connection with the transport of beef under conditions of temperature and humidity which have been productive of a much better quality of output in Great Britain. FROZEN MEAT TBANSPORT. In this connection those associated with the- frozen meat industry will recollect the important investigation carried out in Ncav Zealand a few years ago by a group of scientists under the leadership of Dr. Ezcr Griffiths and Dr. Yickery, concerning the influence on various transport conditions on mutton and lamb, especially on those factors which lead to loss of bloom. The recent success in shipment of chilled beef, employing carbon dioxide gas storage, has been largely due to the fundamental research work carried out at the Cambridge Low Temperature Research Station, which has further been very actively associated with Jhe actual shipments made from New Zealand. The first successful chilled beef shipment from Now Zealand, made in the Port Fairy only last year, was con 7 ducted under tho direction of the Cambridge Low Temperature Research Station, and observed with instruments made available from the station. In connection with porlt and bacon, the investigations of Dr. E. H. Callow\ have provided the New Zealand industry with much valuable information. Trial shipments of pig carcasses dispatched from Now Zealand havo been inspected and reported on for a number of years past, and information of the greatest value regarding feeding, reaction of pig meat" to feeding, and storage conditions has been provided By Dr. Callow and his assistants. VALUABLE WORK ON FRUIT. In no field, however, has there been greater assistance rendered to Now Zealand than that connected \\vith fruit transport and storage conditions. Following Dr. Kidd's visit, the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research arranged for a series of transport trials to" ascertain whether steps should be taken to improve the quality of the Dominion fruit on its arrival in London and reduce wastage to a minimum. This work has been' continued, and has enabled our knowledge of the behaviour' of fruit in transport to bo very mttch increased. The advice of tho Low Temperature Research Station upon matters connected with fruit storage and transport has been accepted as being of tho soundest, and has resulted in improvements being made in both cold stores and in refrigeration systems aboard fruitcarrying vessels. More recently, the erection of a special fruit storage research station at Ditton, in which a model ship's hold has been installed, has enabled further. advances to be made in our knowledge of the behaviour of fruit in cold storage. At the Tony Research Station, Aberdeen, attention has been devoted to problems associated with the fish industry. t . A THOROUGH INVESTIGATOR. Characteristic of the research" work under Sir William Hardy's control was its thoroughness, taken, either from the strictly scientific or from the commercial viewpoint. • The establishment of the researches under his direction constituted a new era in the application of science to the- preservation of perishable foodstuffs. Sir William's organising capacity was of the highest' order and this resulted in his securing the ready, useful, and willing co-opera-tion of other research institutions, with very good results.', A 'glance at any of the annual reports of the Food Investigation Board will reveal how wide were the problems which were 'being attacked,' the thorough manner in which this was being done, and the very real significance each possessed to the food industries of the Empire.

There: is,'therefore, need for! very genuine ,vegwt, in New Zealand i that death has removed the leader and'guidr ing spirit of all this, work, who origin' ated and for - many years capably ad;ministered such a wide field of ret searches of which the very real tvalue to this Dominion is unquestioned. Sir William Hardy's death is a very serious loss to science, both pure and applied* and to. those' industries concerned with the export of perishable food products, but. his work has been, so well'done that the organisation he has built up will enable the researches to'be continued.