SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1927, Page 3

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

SYDNEY, Sept. 22. - The Federal Alinistry headed by Air Bruce has kept the promises it made during its election campaign towards the end of 1923 to explore every avenue for the development of Australian resources and to further the development of the Commonwealth. The main vehicles for carrying out these promises are the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Development and Aligration Commission.

Heavily financed by the Government, the former has begun many activities, Primary and secondary industries alike are receiving its attention. Diseases of stock and plants are receiving the attention of the scientists employed and encouraged by it, and other assistants are investigating means of increasing yields. An excellent illustration of this latter activity is provided by Professor Brailsford Robertson, of Adelaide, who is in charge of research to increase the already high wool yield of Australian sheep by research into their growth and nutrition. Professor Robertson has had 14 years’ experience i in this subject in Australia and the United States. At the end of last year he began a nation-wide investigation of sheep, and to acquaint himself, with the problems encountered by Aus-: tralian pastoralists he undertook a tour of the most important sheep areas. This enabled him to gain a I preliminary knowledge of the type of problems which he and his assistants intend to meet. Laboratory work is now being done by them, and this is [ expected to produce results in a few! years which would take ordinary sheep-{ breeders a lifetime of close study and observation to complete. “It is Bound to be a costly work,” says the Profes-

sor, “ hut the expenditure is not worth considering in comparison with the value of the results which will accrue for the whole of Australia from the discovery of even one principle of nutrition which previously was not known.”

The Development and Aligration Commission has also set on foot much important work in regard to the pastoral industry, but whereas the research council sets about its investigations from a scientific point of view, the Commission works forward from the knowledge and performances of practical men. To defeat the menace of drought is now one of its main objects. But its activities are manifold. Its indefntigible chairman (Air H. AV. Gepp), formerly one of Australia’s captains of industry, moves about the country in almost bewildering fashion. The knowledge that lie must be accumulating of the country’s resources must he wonderful. FISHING INDUSTRY.

Evidence of the Development and Aligration Commission’s activities was given in the calling of a conference at Melbourne this week to discuss plans for the establishment and development of the fishing industry on an economic and profitable basis. Those attending the conference included State Ministers for Fisheries, the heads of their departments, and officers of the Council for Scientific Research and the Develoj)ment Commission. The present fishery methods in Australia arc unsystematic, and wasteful, and despite the abundance of fish, the progress of the industry is lamentably slow. This country imports £1,5000,000 worth of fish products and it was declared that if tho local fishing industry were developed not only could this market he supplied hut an export trade could also he

built up. Among the matters dealt with by tho conference were (1) the means of developing the trawling and related industries; (2) the capture and treatment of non-edible fish for the production of oils, leathers, fertilisers, etc. ; 13) improved methods of preserving fish for sale in fresh condition, tinned, and dried; (4) the possibilities of acclimatising suitable species of food fishes; (5) the necessity for uniform laws for the capture and treatment of whales; and (6) the establishment and maintenance of a central biological station and an institution for the development of teaching and research in fishery matters.