LINKING THE EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11686, 22 June 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

LINKING THE EMPIRE.

IMPERIAL INSTITUTE TAKES A NEW

LEASE OF LIFE. At List the Imperial Institute bus taken a turn for the better.

\!1 the "varietv show" features have been abandoned, and the Fellowship idea, winch tended to make the Institute a. superior sort til club, is rot dving of inanition. Already the new i leas at the Institute are -'iiiL'Ki ' 'it into favour with the keen br.sink.s"mrti of the colonies. In lime ?t may even overcome the conservation of the British trader, ami become, as it was intended to be. a strung commercial link between iJre.it Britain and the- scattered vans < t the limi re.

For this new lease of life the Institute is indebted in part to the transference of a larce portion of its unwieldy building to the University of London. and"to the fact thai the Government has become ieasjiiolde- oi the entire building under the Commissioners en £51.

Hut the chief factor in the new prosperity of the Institute is undoubtedly the increased attention now paid to the commercial intelligence and the scientific Jiivrstig&tion departments. Business men and manufacturers are waking up to the fact that the Imperial Institute is a [dace worth looking at and writing to. In the galleries, especially thwse devote;.! to Australia. .South Africa, and India, the natural products of the colonies are displayed by curators, who are constantly renewing and adding to their collections. If a man wants to know what Australia can provide in the way of new hard woods for furniture-making, tor example, he can examine samples in the Australian section. and then, on application to the commercial intelligence department, be can learn all details of cost and supply. .And so with a hundred articles of commerce.

On the other hand, the scientific investigation department, under Professor W. I'.. Duiistun, is doing such excellent work, in the examination of new mineral and vegetable prod .lets from India and the eoloa.'ts, that the UmumisMouers of Hoi. 'Abo aic supplying the funds, have doubled their grant this year.

Thanks to this increase, Professor Dunstan will soon have a new laboratory at his disposal, making live in all, in addition to a reference library. Here, with his eight assistants, he is doing a valuable and strictly commercial work of so complete a character that it has aroused the interest, of Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and Philadelphia, ami has already resulted in the establishment of new industries in several of the colonies.—! Expiess.