SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1924, Page 2

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

WORK'OF NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE. WELLINGTON, March 26 . “it is with extreme gratieation tld?f the New Zealand Institute has learned that the Government propose to place .01000 uii next year’s Estimates for a vote lor scientific research to he administered by the institute,” stated .a member of the institute in conversation

with a reporter. “Since the curtailment of tlio research vote of £2OOO some three ynars ago on account of the financial geney tlio work of the,institute lijas been seriously handicapped, since members have had to ho denied any finalv* 5 ” cial assistance in presenting the researches they desired to undertake; and much work which might have produccd a considerable economic benefit to the country has had to he abandoned.’’ he continued. “That the research work undertaken by members of tbe institute, during the years that the Government assisted it with a yearly grant has been of great practical value is unquestionable. A re-oarch on the porosity of porcelain insulators was undertaken by Dr Coleridge Farr, of Canterbury, and a paper embodying the results has been pubfished ill the journal of the American Institute of Electric Engineers. Critics have spoken most highly of his work, and Mr Evan Parry says that ,‘tlie »e----suits are very important, and what is more, are very much more conclusive than any that have hitherto been published.’ The same gentleman is - now, with the aid of a grant, investigating the question of the possible relation of radium emanation in artesian waters and goitre. Tn view of the fact that statistics give the average percentage of goilerous children of all ages and sexes in the schools of Canterbury as GO per cent, and that in the Timaru schools, between the ages ol fi f teen -and sixteen, only 10 per cent of the girls escape goitre, it will he admitted that conclusive results obtained from suck a research will he of inestimable value. “The researches which have been undertaken by men of science with financial aid from the institute have covered a wide range of subjects. Fruit dis-

eases, notably brown rot and black spot, their causes and prevention ; New Zealand llax, the diseases which attack it ami the determination of tlie varieties which give the fibre of greatest economic value and the conditions necessary for its cultivation; soil bacteria and protozoa ; New Zealand limitn coals, covering investigation— of* thi> wax content of coals, and invsotigatii.n into the distillates yielding fuel for infernal combustion engines, and primary chemicals for organic work in general ; artesian waters ; licumpteriotis fouiia; methods oi killing mosquitos larvae; tide-predicting machines; pharmacology of New Zealand plants; oils of New Zealand plants; composition and food value of New Zealand fishes; , earthquakes at Taupo; relative efficiency of coal gas and electricity; New Zealand forestry, covering such aspects as physical properties, rate and growth of natural afforestation; geological surveys: phosphate yielding rocks; chemical character of igneous rocks; economic value of whale feed; vita- . mine content of commercial meat products, etc. "From the wide scope of the above subjects it will be recognised ihat work of national economic importance is being undertaken, and tbe country, tbo Government of which fosters and si-ts. such scientific research, must terially benefit from the results obtained. “While appreciating the amount that Cabinet has decided to place on the Estimates, the New Zealand Institute will gladly undertake to administer a larger vote should the finances of tho country permit, or should private ben®, factors feel disposed to subsidise tho Government’s liberal aid to the New. Zealand Institute.”