BETTER N.Z. CUPS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 153, 30 June 1945, Page 6

BETTER N.Z. CUPS

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

POTTERY TRADE EFFORT

P.A. WELLINGTON, Friday. To extend scientific research with the object of improving the quality of locally manufactured pottery and ceramics, arrangements have been made to form a Ceramics Research Association for the maintenance of which firms engaged in the industry and the Government wffl' each con, tribute not less thsn £1-000 a year The association will commence* operation as soon as a constitution has been drawn up and a staff engaged.

An announcement to that effect was made to-day by the secretary of the Manufacturers' Research Committee, Mr. R. T. Wright. The works of the association will be directed by a management committee, most of whose members will be engaged in the industry. The scientific staff will probably be housed adjacent to the Dominion laboratory in Wellington, so that advantage may be taken of the laboratory's special facilities and accumulated fund of knowledge on the subject. The work will include investigation of raw materials, search for improved methods of processing, development of new types of products and testing finished products. Close association will be maintained with the British Potteries Research Association and the British Refractories Research Association, both of which are fully representative of industries in Britain and are substantially supported by the British Government.

New Zealand's ceramic industry was considered eminently suitable for post-war expansion, because it extended into both primary- and secondary fields, said Mr. Wright to-day. Clays suitable for almost every purpose are widely distributed throughout the country and local labour and materials accounted for 99 per cent of the value of the finished product. Development of the industry, which arose out of the manufacture of bricks, pipes and tiles, was greatly accelerated by wartime shortages of imported goods. The articles now manufactured, he said, included sanitary earthenware, vases and ornamental pottery, a wide variety of ceramic products required in industry and utility domestic crockery. New Zea-land-made electric insulators in large quantities, much of which had been supplied to the Allied forces in the Pacific, had proved equal to any produced elsewhere.

Heavy cups and saucers which marked the entry of the' industry into the field of domestic crockery and had caused unfavourable comment, had been made at the request of purchasers and against the judgment of the manufacturers, said Mr. Wright. Already new and improved products, which compared favourably those of overseas manufacturers, were on the market. Domestic ware was now being produced at a rate of at least 5,000,000 pieces a year. It was hoped to reduce costs by mechanisation, largescale production and the development of special skills required in the industry.