THE Thames Star. SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1926. SIR FRANK HEATH’S REPORT.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16799, 29 May 1926, Page 4

THE Thames Star.

SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1926. SIR FRANK HEATH’S REPORT.

“With malice towards none: with charity, for all; with firmness in the right, as God ffives us to see the right.”—Lincoln.

America’s love of a lord is nothing compared to New Zealand’s fondness for Royal .Commissions and impressive reports by experts from overseas. The latest indulgence in this passion for technical advice is the report of Sir Frank Heath on the question of organising scientific and , industrial research in the Dominion. He is secretary to the British Government’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and thus speaks as one having authority. Here and there the document will be hailed with admiration and almost with emotional gratitude as a source of rare inspiration, but practical producers and manufacturers will feel that it leaves them much as they are and with the fixed and complete knowledge that not even science can provide a royal road to better times, comments the Sun. Stripped of verbiage, of which there is a-plenty, the report discloses little that is new, much that already has been done or is being done, however indifferently, and a very great deal that can be aeomplished only with time, patience and stiff expenditure. -It is very largely an old story brought up-to-date and retold impressively. Indeed, Sir Frank Heath has helped himself liberally to established knowledge in New Zealand, and quotes freely and with unqualified approval from ten different sources of expert information. Since several of the ideas and suggestions, which gain his approbation, have been in the Government’s - possession for a decade, it is reasonable to wonder why these now should be treated almost like new discoveries. It is noted, foi example, that as far back as 1916 Dr J. Allan Thomson, reporting on the organisation of scientific and industrial research in Nerw Zealand, 1 noted that a large part of the fail- t ure in England to appreciate the ■ value of research was ascribed to - the classical education of permanent . officials and politicians. Dr Thomson neatly applied that defect to the Dominion, and emphasised the fact that ] the weakness of the existing system as regards science was that scientific 1 men were placed under administrative c officers who had little or no know- t ledge of science. To make up for * that characteristic loss of time and 1 opportunity is the aim and purpose t

of Sir Frank Heath’s principal recommendation. He recommends the creation of a new department under the supervision of the Prime Minister, and composed of men of science and independent thought to act as an advisory council. In addition, Sir Frank Heath urges an extension of the activities of Lincoln College, Canterbury College and the Auckland University College Council, and the establishment of an agricultural college in the North Island on land that is neither too good nor too poor, so that practical results may determine a dependable average level of production. If the difficulties of primary producers and manufacturers can be removed by the creation of yet another department, for Heaven’s sake let the Government set it up at once, but while the scientists and scholar? are collating data and creating nett positions for clever men, the farme? and the manufacturer had better make use of the knowledge they have, and do their best in their own way. For it will be a long time before the value of the prospective scientific Sanhedrin will be demonstrated.