TO KILL DEPRESSION

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1932, Page 2

TO KILL DEPRESSION

SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY. GREAT NEED IN 1932. AUCKLAND, Jan 19. “It is your technical advisers who are going to pull you through-the present depression,” declared Dr E. Marsden of Wellington, Director of the Scientific and Industrial Research Department, in a vigorously delivered and informative address given to members of the Auckland Rotary Club. The burden of the address was that New Zealanders have as yet failed to appreciate the definite bearing which science hns on the welfare of the community, and are only prepared to pay for second hand ' technical advice, where only the best available is good enough. Dr Marsden’s talk was listened tp with close interest by Rotnrians, who, as business leaders, were appealed to th^. speaker to .give a lead to the country in the national planning of industry, If this was not done, he declared, the employees, instead of winning brick to theii* former prosperous condition, would be struggling for a bare existence at the ievei Of a European peasant population. It waS trite that in the big international affairs fteW Meaiahd was relatively in a position of a vety sthhll tail to a Very large dog, yet there was too great a tendency to allow tilings to drift instead of tackling our problems with initiative and boldness, It was the progressive attitude that counted, and the psychological 'effect of a concerted forward move was out of all proportion to the effort that produced it, since it brought hope and purpose to a community. BUTTER AND CHEESE. Touching upon the possibilities of increased revenue from exports, Dr. j Mnf'sden said in regard to the dairy industry that, despite extraordinary progress in th,e past ten years, our farmers were now faced with a serous position. Competition from other parts and Britain's reduced spending power were'the chief factors. He suggested that, in this, as in some other industries, we had not been watching tile' special need of the markets well enough. Right', back to the source of production we must go to obviate any troubles which interfered with the marketing. He quoted an instance where? he, had 'seen (various butters spread ■on scones in a London restaurant'.' The Now. Zealand butter was well out of it from the point of view of “spread-ability”. We might have to take'up the case of exporting dried butter.'and treat it according to the varying neddg of the ilibrket fit the other ,end of the world. He found other difficulties in regard to our cheese; In its production, a controlled Operation Using bacteria as a bnsiß, Wag a chief factor, arid here agnin a. great amount of information hnd been obtained which should be utilised to meet the requirements of a market. It was to-day more necessary than ever that they should have delivered to the factory standard creafn. and the manufacturing process adapted to the latest achievements of science.

A better knowledge of fertilisers was needed by farmers, who in some cases were only getting 33 I*3 per cent, of efficiency, and this was from material that,was imported. Rationalism was neecled to prevent overlapping in cartage of , dairy products.

MEAT EXPORTS

Touching upon the meat export trade, Dr Marsden said that New Zealand first-class lamb was bringing 2£d per lb less, than English. The difficulty was not insuperable, but, unfortunately, our people had not fully realised the position, and the latest aoliievements in various forms of research were not being utilised. In regard to by-products, we could Substantially increase our returns byspecial attention to processing. Meat offals' also presented an important" field for profitable investigation. The- pig export industry had the stage set for a big development. The problems in connection therewith were known, and could be dealt with if the interests took them up from a national aspect. " WOOL “THE BLACK SHEEP”

Wool was the black sheep in our exports at present, but some gains could be registered by better attention to classification for marketing and the avoidance of waste in freights through vessels calling at too many ports, and in other ways-

The phormium industry bad been allowed to stagnate as a consequence of neglect of market’s requirements, and growers of sisal bad taken our place. This position could be regained, Implants available from Massey College would produce twice as well as others and the product could be marketed at £lO per ton, f.o.b. The speaker also said, with regard to the kauri gum trade, that we had allowed this to almost vanish, simp!" through inattention to marketing. In consequence we had let other people get in with a synthetic article when we had a better article to sell.

Touching briefly on secondary indtisries, the speaker said that while it was not safe to rely upon exchange fluctuations as a proof, there were many industries which could lie increasingly developed, particularly those using oUp own raw materials.