ENGINEERING IN CHINA

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28604, 5 June 1958, Page 7

ENGINEERING IN CHINA

W ell-Equipped Laboratories

If value was measured in money then scientists and engineers were the leading class in China, Mr P. J. Alley told members of the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand in the Museum lecture hall last evening. Mr Alley was addressing the branch on observations of scientific and engineering training he made during a visit to China last year. Scientists and engineers were paid three times as much as the workers, he said. The actual amount was not as high as in New Zealand but it had to be remembered that living costs in China were much lower. In a survey of polytechnic institutes and universities in China, Mr Alley said that Chinese institutions were much better equipped in their laboratories than those in New Zealand. After visiting -one soil mechanics laboratory he came away feeling deeply ashamed at what Canterbury University had. “Poor Showing** “Alongside them, we make a poor showing,*’ he said. “Where we’have one piece of equipment, they have 20. They were better equipped. A laboratory had room for 35 students at once.’’ China had undergone a drastic change in education. Previously, there had been 85 per cent, illiteracy. Now there was enforced education. In 1956 where there were green fields there were now universities. One school of engineering had buildings whose floor space was 320,000 square yards. The buildings were spread over 365 acres and one travelled by car for more than a, mile to get from the administration block to the soil laboratory. Comparison “By comparison, the University of Canterbury School of Engineering will cover 12 or 13,000 square yards,’’ Mr Alley said. “The Chinese are far ahead of many countries, our own included; yet all this has been done in a few years,” he said. “There is a great feeling abroad in China. Everyone is keyed up to the necessity of building up the nation.’’ Mr Alley said he knew of an instance where 12,000 students on vacation joined forces to build a stopbank. This was the spirit he meant. ‘

Mr Alley illustrated his lecture with colour slides taken in China during his visit