MORE RESEARCH IN INDUSTRY URGED

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30125, 8 May 1963, Page 14

MORE RESEARCH IN INDUSTRY URGED

The Government did not have a thorough-going eco-

nomic research institute, said the assistant-secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Mr I. D. Dick) last night He was giving a lecture entitled “The Role of Science in New Zealand’s Manufacturing Development” at the conference of the New Zealand Institute of Public Administration. Mr Dick said that Government department and agency research units suffered from a number of severe disadvantages. They were unable to devote much time, if any. to long-term basic research, because they spent too much of their effort with specific problems that had to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Far too few of these organisations had advanced academic training to, say, a Ph.D. level. It was certainly a matter of concern to find that so few scholarly articles by officials on economic investigations had been published in the leading journal of economic research in Australia and New Zealand. Mr Dick said that British industry was just beginning to tackle broadly the problems

of inter-firm productivity analyses. It was time lor New Zealand agencies to try to get them working in New Zealand. He said that New Zealand must greatly increase its research efforts in manufacturing methods and techniques New Zealand did not yet have sufficient knowledge of the extent and nature of its indigenous raw materials. T.ll this shortcoming was tackled New Zealand would be severely handicapped. Much clearer analytical, theoretical thinking was needed among those operating in industry, those working in industrial associations, and those working in the Government Mr Dick said that in the final analysis, the strength of a nation lay in the courage and skill of its people. Norway and Sweden provided New Zealand with an object lesson in how research and development could be used to further the national prosperity and diversify its base. New Zealand spent on research and development in the manufacture of dairy products only one-seventh proportionately of the amount spent by one Norwegian company. This would not oe so important if the dairy market of New Zealand had an assured future on the world market. Technical development was swift today, and traditional notions had to be constantly revised. In the world-embrac-ing trade of today, the possibilities of a small country to assert itself depended more and more on specialisation. Research and development constituted the indispensable prerequisite for the extra values in industrial products. Mr Dick said that New Zealand was hopeful that an iron and steel industry would be started in this country. “But I wonder very much if its management will have the foresight and courage to back its efforts with a research and development effort that would be considered as routine practice by a Swedish steel plant of comparable size?” he said.