SCIENTIFIC “BOOSTING” OF INDUSTRIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1739, 21 July 1917, Page 1

SCIENTIFIC “BOOSTING” OF INDUSTRIES.

WHAT AUSTRALIA IS DOING. The Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry, a temporary body established in April, 15)10, says in a report of its work' that existing’ laboratories in Australia are not ordinarily equipped with apparatus for conducting “large scale” experiments. The executive' committee claims to have ascertained that the accommodation available and the staff and equipment of existing laboratories in Australia are insufficient for the carrying out of fundamental work, which must be done before many pressing problems can be solved. It recommends therefore the establishment of a permanent institute to increase (he output of shilled specialists for the development of the primary and secondary industries of Australia. The committee recommends for the improvement of technical education and the training of artisans an inter-State conference of experts, bat the Government has informed the committee that it does not think such action desirable at present. After referring to the result of investigation work, the report emphasises that the loss in the agricultural and pastoral industries from the attacks of pests, parasites and organisms causing disease, amounts to millions of pounds yearly in Australia. Special committees have formulated lines of action with a view to their control. A report which recommends a scheme for the control and eradication of the prickly pear pests has been presented by the committee to the Federal Government, In the manufacturing industries special attention has been given to the improvement in tunning methods, paper-making, the utilisation of Posidonia fibre (of which there are immense deposits in Spencer’s and St. Vincent’s Gulfs, South Australia), pottery and clays, the manufacture of solid-drawn cylinders fur holding compressed gases, the design and manufacture of alcohol engines, the sterilisation of milk, and the fermenting power of yeast. In regard to the last-named, the results already obtained afford hope that they may have an important bearing on the solution of the daybaking (rouble by reducing the time of the dough in the trough. In regard to paper-making, the report states that in»view of the present shortage of shipping, together with the increasing scarcity of papermaking materials throughout thq world, the question of paper-making in Australia merits careful consideration.. Tests of different materials for this purpose should, the report. iidds, form a valuable portion of the work of the botanical section of the permanent institute, and it Avill probably be necessary to erect a special plant for the purpose similar to (hose already established in Germany, England, Canada, and the United States.