AFTER THE WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11784, 23 August 1916, Page 5

AFTER THE WAR.

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. Professor T. H. Easterfield attended Monday's meeting of the Wellington j Industrial Association to give an address on the subject of the application of science to industries. In opening, he said he supposed that the point before their minds was,, <: What are we going to do after the war?" The big competitors we wore Likely to meet were the United States j and Germany. The United States were j working to establish new industries, I and Germany was working all it knew i to combine industries, so that each j would be able to work more economicj ally. ■ No law preventing the importai tion of German gcods could be carried I out, as, for instancoj in the case of I the potash products. All our railway I lighting was done with German fittings. I The Pintsch Company illuminated ninej tenths of the railway carriages of the j world, raid it might bo difficult to persuade the Government to get rid j of a system with which it was appari untly satisfied. It was therefore necessary to improve our own manufactures. Germany had for years insisted on the value of the application of science to industry, and that bad led to tho expenditure of money in research, aud the sums they had been prepared to give had been sums earmarked out of profits. In some cases they had had no return for years, such as in the case of the production of sulphuric acid, on which £IOO,OOO was spent before it was placed on a commercial basis. ' Then the profits were enormous. New I Zealand had no very big companies. The meat companies'and the Colonial Sugar Company, for instance, employed highly trained experts, and the latter company put aside a certain sum every : year to _ work out some problem in the production of its outp it. What he .wanted to see' was organisation of sei- : entitle rosciucos and their proper utilisation. Take the cost of producing flax. If it could not be reduced, a fall in price might cut out three-quarters of a million in our exports. No systematic work had been dene in dealing j with tho by-products of flax, but if the | various associations could be got to see that it would pay them to have the by-products systematically exam* nied, it woidd do far more good than under the present system of a Cover ninotn bonus. If such a proposal was put. before the Flaxmillers' Association, for instance, they might establish a research fund on a pro rata basis. fnvostig-.tions by Government experts into bu:li sickness in the north had resulted in the utilisation of a million acres of land which wore formerly uscle-ss. He had urged that a tax of a shilling an acre on" such land would produce a big research fund, but the idea had been pooh-noohed by Ministers aud members. What ho would like to see was local manufao- | turors helping to support such scion- j title institutions as existed. If Vie- j toria College had had a little more | help, and the manufacturers' sons had j attended, he was certain it would have I been cf great value. His opinion was that tho future of technical education ' lay with the manufacturer and not I with the workman. That was thoGer- j man idea, as proved by his own ex- j porienoe. | Professor Easterfield was loudly np- i nlaii'l-' 1 ra j;ii.-> end of a very interest- j ing address. The chairman thanked the I're.fessor very heartily, and said it ! only remained fo • the association to ; work with him alowr nvenues which ,! mig'.it e'evelep t.bomsolvp.;. j After aaswonug several qne-tious of a practical nature in an interesting manner, tho Processor was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. j