SUCCESSFUL NEW ZEALAND PROFESSOR

Evening Star, Issue 19639, 19 August 1927, Page 10

SUCCESSFUL NEW ZEALAND PROFESSOR

ADVICE TO 1 YOUNG MEN “ GO IN FOR METALLURGY " It is a long way from Mcrccr to New York—Mercer with its sawmill and big heap of sawdust, its amphibious railway station, its hotel, and not much else, the Lower Waikato village known to most people as the place where the strain stops and you get out and feast on pie and cup of tea. Yet there was a man on the Aorangi who has come all the way from New York to spend a holiday, and one of the places ho will visit is the quiet township on the Waikato (says tho Auckland ‘Star’). “No matter what it is like, no matter how small, it is home, and, after all, there is no place like home,” ho observed with a smile when a reporter suggested ho would bo struck with the difference. Tho gentleman interviewed was Professor M. A. Hunter, professor of electro-chemistry and electro-metal-lurgy at th Eensselaor Polytechnic Institute, Troy,- New York. There the many ex-university students in Auckland who will remember “Mat” Hunter, who had lots of friends and was warmly congratulated when, in 1902, he carried off an 1851 Exhibition scholarship at the college, and went to England to take advantage of it. Professor Hunter hails from Mercer, and though ho smiled when told that most of tho lions of that cpiict little place were still very much as ho loft them, he said he was looking forward keenly to renewing acquaintance with it and also with Auckland, which he had not seen for fourteen years. “ 1 hardly knew the waterfront when tho steamer came into tho harbor; it has changed so much,” said tho voluntary exile. The professor holds a very enviable post in tho Bcnssclacr Institute, which is tho oldest engineering school in the world, by tho way. Ho is much wrapped up in his work, and his advice to any young men looking round for'a career is to “go in for metals,” just ns tho cry was once “ Go on tho land.” Tho professor is emphatically of opinion that from now on will be the “ age of metals.” There will, he said, ho new and great developments research will be enormously extended and if any young man wanted an interesting and profitable calling lie could not do better than take up the study of metallurgy.

In the past (ho metallurgist was principal! v concerned with ierrous metallurgy, but (ho world was now getting into tho ago of nnn-lerrous metallurgy. In tho past there had been marked developments in tho use of iron and steel, but now metallurgists were turning .their attention to alluminas and brasses, and (here were developments that opened up tremendous possibilities. Some astonishing results had been achieved in tho way oi alloys of different metals, and it was in that direction that metallurgists were now turning their attention. Professor limiter said the Uniter) States offered a. great field for experimental metallurgy. Ho knew ol no country where so much use was made of science in aiding commerce. All the time in America manufacturers were coming to tho scientists to enlist their help in solving their ditlieullics. In no other country did industry make so much use of science. That close alliance had been particularly marked .since (be war. in wbicb (he Germans bad shown what wonders could bo achieved by science.

As far ns fundamental scientific research was concerned. England and Germany were still in the iorcii'ont; but America was second to none in the practical application of science, to industry. Even in a place as small as New Zealand the same policy could bo adopted. Of course, every small manufacturer could not all’ord to keep a scientific man on his staff, but by combining several of them could group and employ a scientist to solve their problems in manufacturing and find out improved methods. The professor pointed out that tho old policy nl secrecy among manufacturers was falling into desuetude. Nowadays they were finding out the advantage of pooling their knowledge—except, of course, in cases where something patentable was evolved.