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MINISTER'S STATEMENT. During my visit to attend the Imperial Conference in 1930, and again during my recent visit, I felt it my duty to take advantage of every opportunity to investigate at first hand various research activities and organizations in Great Britain, not only because of their relation to allied research activities in New Zealand, so that such money as we have available may be spent wisely with a minimum of overlapping, but also because a general picture of developments in both primary and secondary industries which are likely to influence our own industrial progress in New Zealand can best be obtained by personal visits to British research institutions and to new industrial organizations, and by talking to the experts and leaders in the actual atmosphere of these experimental undertakings. Although my investigations in Great Britain in this direction were of necessity limited, I have been more than ordinarily impressed with what I have seen and heard, in its relation to our own future in New Zealand, and it appears desirable that in this connection I should in this review of the activities of the Department include a consideration of the relation of some of the researches in Britain to our own activities and needs. There have been amazing developments, for example, in food storage and transport, which are of vital interest to our own industries ; similarly in regard to fuel, textiles, &c. In many directions there is an immense fund of new information in Great Britain of use to us, and at present there is perhaps too little general realization in New Zealand of what is being done and how the results of this work in all aspects of industry and social well-being may be translated and put into practical use for our benefit. It has been brought home to me that, in order to reap the benefit of all the research and development work being done for us in Great Britain, we must provide our own technical and research machinery for the application of these results in New Zealand. It will, of course, be appreciated that the fundamental researches on which industrial developments are ultimately based are international in character and origin, and that we in New Zealand have to take account of progress in all countries; yet, in so far as we are bound to Great Britain by our marketing interests, there is special need for continued co-operation and linking-up with the research activities of the Mother-country, particularly on common problems. There are, however, owing to special local conditions, many directions in which we in New Zealand need to take a lead on our own behalf. Moreover, a full understanding of research results abroad necessitates that we should give our own men the required amount of training so as to appreciate the fundamental principles involved, in order that the application of research results to the special circumstances in New Zealand may be exploited with more certainty. WORK OF DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH. The work of the Research Department falls into two main categories. First, those activities concerned with the provision of the scientific services on behalf of the other Departments or those proper to Government on behalf of the community ; and, second, the research work which comes under the direction of the Research Council. The co-operation with industry in researches aimed at a long-range provision for the future progress and efficiency of those industries. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research itself is not charged with the administration of any governmental regulations, but rather with the provision of information which may be of assistance in framing regulations of a technical character or for the proper administration of such regulations. The extent of the work in the former category is not generally realized.

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