SCIENTIFIC WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1943, Page 2

SCIENTIFIC WORK

ACTIVITIES OF DOMINION LABORATORY MANY SAMPLES ANALYSED ADDRESS BY MR R. L. ANDREW Phases of the work of the Dominion Laboratory were dealt with at today’s luncheon of the Masterton Rotary Club in an informative address by Mr R. L. Andrew, F.1.C., Dominion Analyst, of Wellington. The laboratory, he said, did chemical and related scientific work for various Government departments, except the Department of Agriculture. After referring to the establishment of the Colonial Laboratory in 1865, from which the present service was evolved, and to some of the men associated with its work, Mr Andrew said that by far the largest number of samples were submitted by the Department of Health in connection with its general activities and particularly with its administration of the Sale of Foods and Drugs ActSamples of portable water from existing and projected water supplies in all parts of the Dominion were regularly examined and any marked departure from the normal composition of water in a particular district was at once investigated. Chemical investigations in connection with stream pollution and sewage disposal were made and that work was likely to become increasingly important. The examination of milk samples was by far the most important work done in connection with foods. Last year 17,495 milk samples were analysed and about 600 other food samples. About thirty years ago the condition of the Wellington milk supply was a scandal and in 1910 the Department of Health took the matter seriously in hand. Mr Andrew referred to the tests adopted for milk. In the old days, he said, it was safe to say that milk sold in Wellington contained an average of seven per cent added water. Taking the supply at 8000 gallons per day, that would mean 560 gallons of water sold as milk and at 2s per gallon, the cost to the consumer would be £56. Even worse in its effect than watering was the sale of stale or bacterially polluted milk. Such milk was particularly dangerous to young children and the marked fall in infantile mortality in large cities had been coincident with the improved bacteriological conditions of the milk supplies. It gave the laboratory considerable satisfaction to know that it had played an important part in cleaning up the milk supplies of New Zealand. Nowadays, said Mr Andrew, there was little wilful adulteration of foods or drugs. The great problem was their misuse, particularly of the latter. Referring to other activities of the laboratory, the speaker said many samples were submitted in connection with corrosion problems. A specially equipped section dealt with numerous samples of bitumen, tar, road oils and other samples submitted by the Highways Board. Paints were examined for various departments. One of the most interesting sections of the laboratory’s work was the examination of samples of the natural mineral resources of the country, submitted by the Mines Department, Geological Survey and sometimes by prospectors. New Zealand, he said, had been well prospected and there was no great likelihood of any further spectacular discoveries of mineral deposits, though there was still much to be done to ascertain the size and composition' of deposits of various material's. New Zealand had deposits of many different kinds of clays and these deposits should be carefully surveyed for quantity and their chemical and physical properties. Interesting work was done for the police, especially in relation to suicides and accidental deaths. The motor car had brought its special problems and the laboratory was called on to identify glass splinters. Mr Andrew referred especially to the work of Mr Griffen in murder and other cases, in which his investigations wore most successful.