The Dominion TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1926. THE KEY TO INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 157, 30 March 1926, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1926. THE KEY TO INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

The report on scientific industrial research presented by SitFrank Heath to' the Australian Federal Government seems likely to lead to early and important developments in the Commonwealth. He has’ recommended measures of reorganisation under which research activities will be controlled by a Federal council and by subsidiary'bodics in the several States. Considering that the scheme provides for the systematic development of research on a national basis, its cost—£4o,ooo in the first full year, rising ultimately to a maximum of £lOO,OOO annually—certainly cannot be regarded as

excessive. ' When Sir Frank Heath’s report to our own Government has been made public it may appear that a somewhat lower level of expenditure will meet requirements in this country, In any case it is clear that scientific industrial research must be adequately financed and encouraged by the State, though not only by the State, if our primary and secondary industries are to expand and prosper. Sir Frank Heath’s report to the New Zealand Government no doubt will run on the same practical lines as his report to the Government of Australia. Indeed, since the two countries afe faced by broadly similar problems of industrial development it may be expected that the two reports will prove to have much in common. Available summaries of the Australian report indicate that it will recommend in the first place the intensive development of primary industries by the application of modern scientific knowledge, and secondly an orderly development of manufacturing industry by the fabrication of locally produced raw materials. This obviously is the line of development that should be followed also-in New Zealand. The fact that it has not been followed consistently must be attributed rather to a neglect of organisation than to any difficulty in perceiving where the greatest advantage lies. In one of his public utterances while he was a visitor to the Dominion Sir Frank Heath observed that he had noticed in Wellington that a large number of the city’s industries had a great burden to carry, which in older countries was not nearly so frequent. He referred (he added) to the multiplicity of products. He was quite certain that this multiplicity could not be simplified. without organisation among the industries themselves. By such means simplification had taken place in certain countries, and was still taking place in all industrial countries under the pressure of necessity. Summarily, the whole process amounted to specialisation. . . . '

It is perhaps a saving leature of the industrial situation in this country that the undue complexity of our secondary industries has limited their growth, and that there is corresponding room far new development. At all events there seems to-be highly profitable scope for scientific research directed not only to strengthening our established primary industries, but to the organisation of manufacturing enterprise representing a logical extension of these industries. Agricultural industry and other primary industries have paramount claims where research is concerned. They are the foundation on which everything else is to be built. In furtherance of an orderly scheme of industrial development, consideration should next be given to putting at least through early processes of manufacture the greatest possible proportion of our locally produced raw materials, such as wool, flax, forest produce, and perhaps some minerals. Our fisheries also offer promising scope for investigation aiming at thfeir more effective and profitable utilisation. When the manufacture of wool tops was mooted some time ago by Mr. W. D. Hunt, the chief difficulty standing in the way was shown to be high taxation, and particularly company taxation. This handicap no doubt is of serious importance, but it rests on all industries save those that are conducted on a very minor scale. ■ Irrespective of the rate at which the handicaps imposed on industrial enterprise by the present scale and incidence of taxation are modified, money wisely spent in furtherance of industrial research will yield excellent returns indicating how such enterprise may be directed to the best advantage. One very important point to be borne in mind is that the Dominion is spending huge sums annually upon the generation of hydro-electric power. It is rather obvious that unless they are turned to account under an enterprising policy of industrial development and expansion, our costly power stations and transmission systems will be apt to become a burdensome white elephant. On this ground alone we have a very strong incentive to build up manufacturing industries to deal with the. raw materials our country is so well fitted to produce. Sir Frank Heath’s report may be expected not only to point the way to the practical policy the case demands, but to demonstrate that it would be very false economy to deny ourselves the light that reasonably supported scientific research will throw on all the problems involved.