N.Z. INSTITUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 99, 28 April 1932, Page 12

N.Z. INSTITUTE

THE REDUCED GRANT

VALUABLE WORK HAMPERED

Concern is being expressed at the recommendation of the National EconomyCommission to reduce the annual grant to the New Zealand Institute to £400. Until March, 1931, the annual grant to the Institute was £1500, and there was also an annual vote varying from £750 to £1250 for the "purpose of research work. Last year, however, this latter vote was eliminated and the annual grant was reduced to £750, and now it i 3 proposed to reduce still further this grant to £400.

The Hew Zealand Institute was established by special Act of Parliament in -1867, and in the following year the annual grant was £500, and below this figure, during the last sixty-five years, the annual grant has never fallen. Most of the annual grant is expended in the publication of "Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute," an annual volume which contains scientific papers contributed by members and others who wish to record the results of their scientific studies and researches. It was through this channel that the early work of Lord Rutherford was made known. This publication, one of a thousand pages or more, is distributed 'annually to four hundred universities ana scientific institutions throughout the civilised world. The publications received in exchange have enabled the New Zealand Institute to build up a very valuable and extensive 'scientific library.

Drastic economies in the printing of the Transactions have already been effected, and it is felt that any further reductions in the Institute's grant will have more than a deleterious effect on the scientific worK being done in the Dominion, work which is recognised in many parts of the world as having much more than an ephemeral value.

Providing -weather- conditions are favourable, the Wellington Aero Club's new three-passenger biplane will be available to racegoers to attend the trotting , meeting at Blenheim tomorrow and the races on Saturday. Flight-Lieutenant G. Bolt will be the pilot.