H.—34.

Certain members of the Department's staff possessed of special qualifications have boon transferred wholly for work with the defence services. All branches of the Department have intensified their efforts to assist both primary and secondary industries in dealing with problems arising out of the circumstances of the war. In September, when the Supply Control organization was set up, contact was established with all Controllers, and the full services of the Department were made available to enable supply problems to be dealt with. Realizing that still greater effort was required, the Department initiated investigations which experiences of the last war indicated would be necessary, and in the course of this work there has been compiled a valuable fund of new information which may prove to be of very real assistance to industry during the war period. Realizing the need for having readily available particulars of the qualifications of scientists residing in the Dominion, the Department has compiled a register of the scientific personnel of New Zealand, and the detailed information provided therein has already been found to be of real practical use. Physical Testing Laboratory. For many years the chemical services required by the Government have been provided by the Dominion Laboratory and its branches. The growing importance of physical testing both to the Government and to industry has become increasingly apparent in recent years, and consequently a Physical Testing Laboratory was established in Wellington during the year. As yet the Laboratory is not fully equipped, but its services have been in very full demand for defence, departmental, and industrial requirements. Attached to the Laboratory is a workshop which is proving most useful for the construction of delicate instruments and machinery which often have to be devised for special purposes. Secondary Industries. To assist actively in the Government's policy of developing secondary industries in New Zealand and to provide for the needs of existing industries faced with the necessity of seeking substitutes in consequence of supplies having been reduced or stopped by war conditions, a special Technical Committee representative of the Departments of Industries and Commerce and Scientific and Industrial Research was constituted during the year. The Committee meets regularly, reviews the Dominion's natural resources and the problems confronting secondary industries, and initiates both scientific and commercial investigations designed to promote sound development either of existing or of possible new industries. The efforts of this Committee have been responsible for the speeding-up of chemical and geological investigations relating in particular to the Dominion's mineral resources. Research Associations. During the year considerable progress was made in negotiations preparatory to the formation of research associations for the building and laundry industries. Implementation op Research Results. Publications dealing with the findings of investigations have been issued in considerable number during the year, and special steps have been taken to ensure that their results have been brought to the notice of all those directly interested. A number of meetings were arranged so that research workers could discuss their investigations directly with representatives of industry or of other Government Departments. Regular articles on popular lines have been prepared for the press so that the results of research work in progress could become widely known. Library. The Department s library has been established on a proper basis during the year and is now reasonably well housed. Research Progress. In co-operative and organized scientific research spectacular results seldom appear. Progress comes rather by steady accretion of new information, all of which is received by the investigators themselves with critical caution. Ultimately this is built into the edifice of knowledge and practice where it is thoroughly tried out. To-day the advent of new knowledge is, as a rule, absorbed into industrial practice gradually. There is ample local evidence of this—for example, in the extent to which cobalt salts are used in fertilizers as a matter of course to check stock anaemia, boron applied to apple-trees to prevent internal-cork disease, and certified strains of rye-grass and clover used by farmers. All of these are instances of the widespread use of research findings of very recent years. During the past year marked progress has been made in many spheres of research—measures have been devised for the effective control of a number of plant diseases of recent introduction to the Dominion ; hopes for readier and economic control of club-root disease of turnips are more promising ; the increasing importance of magnesium as a minor element affecting plant and animal thrift has been ascertained, the pasture resources ol the whole of the North Island have been surveyed and mapped, and a similar survey regarding soils is rapidly approaching completion.

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