Some Myths Exploded

—by Dr. R. M. Williams, a State Services Commissioner, formerly Director of the Applied Mathematics Laboratory, D.S.I.R.

I'm sometimes appalled to find how little scientists outside know of the scientific work of the Public Service; no doubt it's our fault. Even more disturbing than ignorance is the amount of sheer mis-information.

For instance, for many years we've operated a scheme in which a scientist is promoted strictly on merit, as judged by his fellow scientists. It's deliberately designed so that a scientist can get promotion on his own performance, without controlling a large staff. Yet, we're still told that, in the Public Service, promotion is by seniority and empire-building.

Another common myth about science in government is that it's devoted to short-term, adhoc projects, and there is no time for pure research.

It's true that government departments have to provide some routine services, and deal with some scientifically uninteresting work. We've yet to see any job that doesn't have its drudgery: ask any university professor about marking examinations! But science in government is long past the stage where it expects to do its job without a strong background of basic work.

Few tough practical problems are solved by applying existing knowledge: they

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Some Myths Exploded

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mostly demand basic research to fill in gaps in knowledge. Often these gaps are big ones, and we have to plan years ahead to be strong in the fields of research which are likely to be relevant. It is not just improvisation.

The national interest broadly determines the area in which basic research is done, but it does not limit that research. The range of disciplines recognised as necessary is very wide and the lines of fundamental research that are stimulated are sometimes unexpected. For instance: a mathematician working on spontaneous combustion of wool, found that he had to do fundamental work on the properties of certain types of partial differential equations. The work has since been published in leading mathematical journals.

Again, we're often told usually by people who have (not been overseas) that our scale of activities in New Zealand is too small to give a good man scope. Certainly, there are some fields of research in which we (and many larger countries), can't compete. But there are many (geothermal studies or plant chemistry to name only two) in which we can and do afford efforts that put us on the world map.

A research laboratory does not necessarily have to be large to be good. There is plenty of opportunity to make a scientific reputation, if you have the ability and your interest develops in one of the very wide range of disciplines that we need.

The best way of finding out about the scientific work in the Public Service is to come and talk about it; better still to try to work in a laboratory in the long vacation.