CHEMISTS’ WORK IN INDUSTRY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 266, 23 August 1949, Page 4

CHEMISTS’ WORK IN INDUSTRY

Minister Discusses Scope ' In N.Z. TIMBER, COAL AND OTHER MINERALS (P.A.) AUCKLAND, August 22. The utilisation of New Zealand’s exotic forests was a problem for chemists,' said the Minister in charge of Scientific and Industrial Research (the Hon. T. H. McCombs), opening the conference of the Royal and New Zealand Institutes of Chemistry. The forests were rapidly maturing and something would have to be done to ensure the products were - not wasted. The Government’s intention to' establish pulp and paper mills depended largely on chemists and chemical engineers.

The extraction of valuable minerals, including solar salt, in Marlborough, illustrated the chemists’ valuable work. New Zealand had also to use low grade coal resources to greater advantage for domestic purposes and industry. There was a great field for research.>

New Zealand’s greatest problem was to translate scientific knowledge into industrial practice, said Mr McCombs. New Zealand chemists had made a valuable contribution to industrial development as a whole, and it was in the public interest that their work should be encouraged. The number of chemists and chemical engineers was expected to increase in New Zealand, and eventually there would be 616, of whom 193 would be employed in industry, said the Minister. Mr McCombs said that in 1927 there were only 92 qualified chemists in New Zealand, of whom 26 were employed in industry. There were iioav 450 chemists and chemical engineers, including 138 in industry. The proportion of chemists employed in private industry had fallen in that period by roughly 35 to 30 per cent