“Good Use Made Of Scientists”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 1

“Good Use Made Of Scientists”

The Governor-General (Sir Bernard Fergusson) yesterday officially opened the £3.2 million science buildings of the new University of Canterbury at Ham.

The 500 guests were seated along two sides of the firstfloor concourse which runs round the building, the official party being in the elbows. Sir Bernard Fergusson recalled that after six and a half months in New Zealand as a boy he was sent protesting back to school in England. The science schools at Eton were “dark, dingy, and old-fashioned, and so were the science masters and their ways.” It was a sign of the times that those old buildings had been torn down and new, shiny, modern ones erected in their place. “S.cience plays a much bigger part in the curriculum of everybody,” said Sir Bernard Fergusson. Twenty years ago, with friends, he “poked fun” at Professor J. D. Bernal for prophesying space travel. Ten years ago the newly-appointed AstronomerP.oyal “pooh-poohed” the idea. “And look at us now.”

No country in these days could afford to drop behind in the world of science, least of all New Zealand, said the Governor-General. The man in the street was all too apt to think of science as something that did not concern him. This, of course, was nonsense.

On the whole, New Zealand had made good use of its scientists. Sir Bernard Fergusson mentioned their employment in primary industries, canneries, cement works, and the iron-sands industry.

“I am proud to be associated with this building,” he said.

“It is, among other things, an earnest of the determination of the University of Canterbury to be not only abreast of the times but ahead of them.”

The Chancellor (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren) spoke of “this great and exciting moment for the university” when the science complex was opened by Sir Bernard Fergusson both as GovernorGeneral and as the official visitor. He paid tribute to all associated with the planning, construction, equipment and commissioning of the new science school. The Vice-Chancellor (Professor N. C. Phillips) described some of the huge building statistics. Those, he said,

were less important than the men and women who would work here. He described the growth of the science student numbers, staff, and research. The Canterbury record of scientific achievement would lengthen and broaden within those walls. A plaque commemorating the occasion was unveiled by the Governor-General.