PRODUCTIVE LAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1936, Page 13

PRODUCTIVE LAND

OUR REAL >VEALTH HELP GIVEN BY RESEARCH "The real wealth of New Zealand lies in productive land and a healthy, vigorous population. There was never a time when there was so much conscious effort to do the right, tt'ing, but we need to plan progress intelligently through research or there will be a relative failure in achievement" declared Dr. E. Marsden, secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, in an address to the National Dairy Association at Hastings. It was necessary, he said, to carry on a constant war, through research, against all which might mitigate against the obtaining of maximum benefit from their efforts. Times of depression were not times for stagnation. The reverse was the case. In nearly all problems demanding research there were two stages. Firstly, there was the assembling of known facts thought to be relevant—a few empirical experiments, and from these a suggestion as to a temporary palliative for possible improvement. Secondly, a more thorough search for fundamentals and information to more carefully diagnose the difficulty and indicate the real more lasting remedy. "I would be far from claiming that industrial or national progress is in direct ratio to scientific progress," continued Dr. Marsden. "The usefulness of a science is conditioned by circumstances which have nothing to do with the science itself. Progress, whether individual or national, arises from men thinking intelligently about their jobs in the light of accumulated experience and scientific knowledge. Scientific research can but supply the background of fundamental facts, knowledge, and principles to help us to think a little straighter without prejudice and superstition. We are finding more and more that this is the true function of scientific research. In almost every problem presented to us we are driven back to study of fundamentals before we can make real progress."