ORGANISED RESOURCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 86, 13 April 1931, Page 3

ORGANISED RESOURCES.

UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRY. SCIENCE APPLIED TO PRODUCTION. NECESSITY FOR TRAINING. "The University in its Eelations with Industry" was taken as the subject of the Commemoration Day address at Canterbury University College by Dr. E. Marsden, secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

"It must beconfessed," said Dr. Marsden, "that at the present time the university is not understood by the layman, and is viewed too much as an institution for the training of non-practical-minded schoo| teachers. Too few of its graduates have taken leading places in the direction of national affairs and industry,; but it has a far higher and wider purpose —that of being in the van of social, industrial and economic progress. The development of this higher purpose is the real problem of the university and the country today. We must develop a position in which the university is the laboratory or intelligence centre for the country, and strive after a position where 'what the university thinks to-day, New Zealand thinks to-morrow,' with an everdecreasing interval between the 'to-day' and the 'to-morrow.' "It would be a blinding of ourselves to facts to fail to realise that educational institutions and processes are at present undergoing the closest scrutiny. The widespread participation in high school and university education, with the ever-increasing need for staff, buildings and equipment, has raised the issue in a very practical form. The very tools of education —the subjects of curricula — have been called into question. The more fundamental issue as to whether education can do much to develop inherent qualities or inculcate qualities that are locking, or whether, after all, heredity is not a dominant and controlling factor, has been much to the fore in psychological research. It is imperative that we examine the faith that is in us, so that our declaration may be unequivocal and our vision clear.

"The university is here to meet the needs of the Dominion and its people. The services of the professions essential to the maintenance of the standard of culture can be performed only if men and women are trained in present-day knowledge. Secondly, the university stands rooted to the ideals of democracy. Our people have espoused a system of government which has as an essential condition to its success the faith that men and women can be trained to think for themselves. Thirdly, the university stands for quest after truth. No work in science, economics, philosophy or literature will stand that which has not the hall-mark of truth, and the underlying note of courage to maintain the truth. Lastly, within the university walls must be felt the quiet note of the good and the beautiful. Whatever may be the things that appeal to the innermost being, whatever may be the mode -of expression by whicft those of the university express the highest, that is within them, for this must Le found a source within our university life.

The University's Part. "What part is the university playing? We have been producing graduates for 50 years. We have about 1000 new students a year entering our colleges. Over one in three hundred of the population is undergoing instruction in the university classes. In practice, however, these students.are: sidetracked from industry,, and too small a proportion are used in this vital service. What is the reason for this? The answer is, they leave the university at an age normally considered locally as too advanced for entry into industry or business, and they perforce have to take up teaching. The training they receive is not sufficiently related to practical life. There is a tendency to despise present industrial methods. Industries are too few and on too small a scale,, or not sufficiently rationalised; and industrialists are not sufficiently alive to the value of the graduate. "If it bo worth while taking steps to remedy this condition, how can Ave proceed practically? Firstly, we must consider all methods capable of producing a change in attitude on the part of both industrialists and the Government, and on the part of the university. The following thoughts arise for consideration. "We must secure the interest and guidance in our university controlling bodies of more men who have been successful in industry by giving service. We must organise employment with various industrial enterprises, during vacations, for the best selected students, so that opportunities may be created for their permanent employment after graduation. We must create in students a spirit of progressiveness, independence, self-reliance and love of practical work, and a spirit of adventure in regard to the taking up of outside employment. We must see that each graduate has sufficient contact with the various other faculties to realise the kind of problem on which representatives of the other faculties can assist by thenspecialised knowledge. We must consider the question of amalgamation with the local Technical School, which, in that case, should be limited to the teaching of the fundamental aspects underlying various industries and such as are required for those ambitious to become foremen, managers and generally, leaders.

"We must arrange for a greater" number of our students to take the honours course. This year there are only four students in the whole of New Zealand who have obtained first class honours degrees. The fault does not lie at the doors of the professors concerned, but at that of the system. The ordinary

B.A. or B.Sc. degree, in general, is not sufficient for industry, because it does not include a training in the methods of investigation. It may be possible to introduce a three years' honours course, as in some of the British universities, including an acquaintance with methods of investigation which give the graduate the confidence and initial training necessary to face the problems of industry. Lincoln College. "For the sake of our primary industries it would be well to move towards a closer linking up with Lincoln College. This policy already is being pursued; but it would be well for all concerned that it should be furthered. The Agricultural College can best transmit to students and agriculturists improvements in practice and developments in agriculture; but, fundamentally, the problems often fall back on the pure scientist, the engineer and the economist. The increasing tendency towards rationalisation, mechanisation and more scientific principles in agriculture means closer touch with the primary sciences of chemistry, biology and physics. Solutions in problems of agriculture come back to fundamental principles and specialist consideration; and full co-operation of the specialist staffs of both institutions must be ensured for the common end. Not that the laboratory is the greatest factor in solution of agricultural problems; but we need the co-operation of all concerned in what, after all, is our greatest industry. There are too many amateurs giving advice. We need more basic facts; and it is only recently that more quantitative fundamental scientific methods have been applied; and the harvest is I out of all proportion to the effort. But one thing I have learned during my past four years' experience, and that is that only good men are worth while—men of > vision, and of thorough grounding in the . basic sciences, but with the researcher's enthusiasm, and, like all researchers, requiring a fair field for initiative, unhampered by a too formal organisation. Too Many Amateurs. i

"We need in industry men having such as the university can give. We have far too many amateurs as a result of our too easily gained apparent prosperity. It is the attitude of industry towards science and economics that is at fault, and we must share the blame. One way to push home the lesson would be to make industry pay for scientific developments, since they would place a higher value upon that for which they had to pay. " For example, it should not be difficult for the Engineering School to develop a really efficient flax stripper— a fundamental requirement in the flax industry—now that we have established the fact that high-yielding strains are possible; or for the Chemical Department to develop processes of value to the freezing works, woollen mills, or outlier industries. Similarly, for other departments. The problems are present in great numbers, and industry is lacking in faith in the scientific method. Pursuing this theme, I raise the question as to whether the present economic crisis is not such that, as an emergency expedient, we should organise the whole of the Dominion's scientific resources on the problems of industry. Industry arid' politicians seem to have a fear of both i economics and science; they so often have been deceived by quasi'-economists and quasi-scicntists. How many apparently good economic schemes'in New Zealand have crashed as a result of j technical difficulties, and how much good capital has been thereby wasted? 1

"Perhaps these last considerations are foreign to the main subject of the university; but the university's place is the training of scientists, economists, engineers, and sociologists for industry, and the pushing ahead of the barriers of fundamental knowledge. The field of usefulness is immense. Let us aim at a better understanding of industry and the university, or we stagnate, this is an agricultural country; our manufactures deal with its raw products, and the problems of biology—plant and animalloom large in all of these considerations. Wo have neglected the application of this increasingly important science. Let the university take the lead in introduc. nig its teaching and principles into an educational system, our primary industries; and our statecraft; ultimately, this would mean a tremendous advance in our great industries and in our social life"