VITAL PRINCIPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 17

VITAL PRINCIPLE

OF STANDARDISATION

NECESSARY TO INDUSTRY

The second annual general meeting of the New Zealand Standards Institution -was held yesterday afternoon under the chairmanship of Mr. M. G. C. McCaul. Reference at the outset was made to the death of Mr. J. Pearce Luke who, in association with Mr. le Maistre, director and secretary of the British Standards Institution, was largely responsible for the establishment of the institution in the Dominion. Shortly before his death Mr. Luke, as retiring chairman, sent a short address which he asked might be read at the annual meeting. In the course of this address he remarked that some might naturally be rather depressed by the apparent failure of the institution to achieve the results which were so eagerly anticipated. This sensation of depression, however, he believed, was entirely due to the non-appreciation of the time factor which necessarily governed the development of all new movements. He reminded them that it took thirty years from the time the first movement was made to standardise certain steel products, till the idea was . seized and adopted and given international recognition. Mr. McCaul, in his presidential remarks, said that he was firmly of the opinion that the institution had already achieved much of great value io the community and that there was yet an infinite amount of valuable service that could still be performed for every branch of manufacture in New Zealand and for the community as a whole. New Zealand as a young counti-y, he was convinced, would never be really successful in its manufacturing industries unless thought, time, and money were spent upon scientific experiment, development, and standardisation. The general principle of standardisation would have to be adopted in every branch of industry and effort if we were to succeed in competition with overseas producers and manufacturers. Standardisation was a vital first principle for the elimination of waste and reduction of costs. In the annual report, which was adopted, reference was made at some length to the question of finance. "It is a matter for regret, but the fact must be faced that if lack of funds should necessitate the disbandment of this institution, all the projects it has in hand, including the completion and revision of the building code, lapse so far as this representative organisation is concerned," said the report. "The corollary to this is that the framing of standards must either revert to sectional interests, or be placed in the hands of commissions appointed and financed by the Government, or be left undone. The experience and practice of a score of other countries, large and small, have proved beyond question that the better solution is to maintain a nationally-representative, body, as exemplified by the British Standards Institution, upon which the constitution of the New Zealand Standards Institution has been modelled." Acknowledging the invaluable services which have been rendered in the common interest by members of the institution's several councils and committees, these including leading men practising in various professions as well as industrialists and Government and local authorities' officers, the "report added:—"lt has been computed on a conservative basis that the financial equivalent of the services thus given on? j.the-:?institution's,, committees .has amounted to some thousands of pounds, the.j3ers.onal .contribution of .one in-

dividual alone., being equivalent to several hundreds of pounds irrespective of the loss of fees on private work which was turned down due to the urgency of the particular work which the institution had asked him to undertake. These may appear to be remarkable figures, but attention is drawn to them deliberately, because it is difficult if not impossible for those not directly concerned in the drafting of standard specifications or codes to realise the amount of work involved, not merely in the drafting and checking of the technical details and wording, but in the committee meetings and discussions, often prolonged, of the different interests whose views must be brought into alignment before a project can be endorsed as an agreed national standard." During, the discussion on finance it was stated that the work could be carried pn with a minimum of £400 a year, but £1000 a year was really needed; to enable all to be done that might.be done. • Considerable discussion took place upon the urgency of putting into practice at once the regulation drawn up by the building code committee. Several members said that it \vas a scandal that the issue of these regulations had been held up for so long. It was over four years since the Napier earthquake and local bodies were still waiting for the model building bylaws. These, regulations, it was stated, would be forwarded immediately to the Government, although, it was pointed out, there was no power to make them mandatory. It will be asked that these regulations be circulated by the Government at once. Mr. C. "R. Ford (Auckland) was elected chairman for the remainder of the present year and for next year.