Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1916. SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Nelson Evening Mail, 29 September 1916, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1916. SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

WE referred yesterday to the course of I action to be taken by the Trustees in connection with the Cawthron Institute. To-day it may be of interest to deal generally with the great subject of science and industry for some indication may be given of the enormous benefit the proposed work of the Institute may be to this district and to New Zealand as a whole. The arresting statement was recently made by Lord Haldane in the House of Lords thatexperts calculate that by proper means Great Britain could produce the whole of the motor power now used from onethird of the coal consumed in doing so. It was also calculated, he added, that the Mother Country wasted in various stages of consumption and the making of byproducts a? much coal as would pay the interest on £500,000,000 after the war. Great Britain is now earnestly considering the matter, and it is, as stated yesterday, receiving special attention in Australia, and a- little is being done in New Zealand. The Australian effort to couple together science and industry has for its underlying desire "to consider and initiate scientific research in connection with, or for the promotion of, primary or secondary industries in the Commonwealth." And further, two of its specific functions are, "the collection of industrial scientific information and the formation of a bureau for its dissemination amongst those engaged in industry, and to direct attention to any new industries which might be profitably established in the -Commonwealth." It may be observed, says Professor Payne, that the hasal idea is what is known as scientific development, brought about directly or indirectly by the aid of research into problems demanding tiiccollaboration of scientifically trained men. In an interesting address delivered recently before the Science and Industry Section of tl e Royal Society, Professor Warren, of the Sydney University, gave the Federal Committee of Science and Industry credit for useful work for which it was arranging—work which, in his opinion, cotild not fail to exercise a. ibeneficial influence on Australian activities nore especially those of the manufacturing industries. The scientific section, he urged, could appeal to a fairly large proportion of the community, and could direct its attention to the advantages of scientific study and research in manufactures. The Professor goes io the heart of the matter when he says that ' i !>y improvoment in the mechanical means of production resulting from well-dirtvted experimental investigation would make for more perfect design and greater economic output." New Zealand is primarily an agricultural country, and the application of the theory is mainly to rural industries, and- in Nelson fruit necessarily comes first. Speaking at a meeting of the Canterbury Phijosopbical Institute recently Mr L. J. Weld, of Lincoln College, described as disproportionate the official attention paid to mining in the Dominion as compared with that devoted to agriculture, on the basis of the output of these two industries. He Uot imply that too much or even enough, had been done to develop mining, but his argument was that agriculture had been practically allowed to look after itself. We had grafted on to this new country, he observed, the agricultural system of the Old Land, irrespective of the suitability of . that system in our often widely different conobservations that there is tremendous scope before the Cawthron Institute in this district.