PAINT USED IN NZ.

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28532, 11 March 1958, Page 9

PAINT USED IN NZ.

Third Highest In World

A growing appreciation of modern colour trends in painting probably contributed to New Zealand being the third greatest user of paint a head of population in the world, Mr L. J. Pearson, the managing director of the paint manufacturers, Lewis Berger and Sons, Ltd., said in an interview in Christchurch. Mr Pearson, who arrived at the week-end from Australia on a tour of the company's offices in New Zealand, said that there was an obvious move in the Dominion to use paints in modern ways. More than £7m worth of paint was purchased yearly in New Zealand. New Zealand paint purchasers were little different from those of other countries, he said, but the research needed to produce durable paints for the New Zealand market was a solid task. New Zealand’s geographical narrowness meant that most places in the country were near the sea, and this had a bad effect on paint Manufacturers* Goal The one great goal paint manufacturers throughout the world were working towards was the manufacture of a paint as thin as water, but with all the qualities of gloss and durability orthodox paints now had, he said. Manufacturers were striving in this to produce paint without the inflammable solvents now used. A great blaze in a General Motors 1 assembly plant in the United States had prompted this research, 1 said Mr Pearson. In that blaze ■ lacquers used for car painting had [ been ignited. This would affect • insurance premiums greatly if the 1 research proved successful.