Sessional_Paper_1931 — Page 225

The

of Building

Material.

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might be a member of one of the Engineering or Dockyard Staffs. A student who, as a result of this test, failed to show that he had any capacity as a worker with his hands, even if he were not altogether precluded from going any further with his engineering course, might at least be prevented from trying to qualify as a mechanical or electrical engineer. Such a student is not likely to shape well as an apprentice anywhere.

IV. Technology.

59. Colonel M. H. Logan, D.s.o., of Messrs. Palmer, Turner & Company to Technology whose indictment of the labour conditions under which the building industry of the Colony is carried on we revert later, states that in connexion with brickmaking and ceramics there is in Hong Kong obvious need for research. He asserts that at present there is tremendous wastage in connexion with locally made bricks and that there is the ever present problem of the locally made tile; that the corrosion of iron-piping and lead-covered electric cables due to salts in the water and in the building material generally is the source of heavy expense to the Colony every year and is a serious factor in the life of buildings. Colonel Logan contends that the seasoning of woodwork is a matter which deserves attention and that experiments as to the correct amount of moisture content for the climatic conditions prevalent in Hong Kong are badly needed. He adds that much successful work has been done on these lines in Shanghai; and that whereas kiln-drying in Shanghai is the rule, such a thing as a wood-drying kiln is in Hong Kong non-existent. Colonel Logan claims that the economic use of scaffolding and centering for re-inforced. concrete work needs study and he holds that a very much greater efficiency in time, labour and material generally could be effected. He concludes by protesting that the building trade, though probably the largest individual trade in the Colony, is badly organized, that waste is prevalent and that the trade has never received the attention given to it in other countries in proportion to its importance.

University help required.

What the University has done.

60. Colonel Logan thinks that research into brick and tile construction and the various problems presented by sand, lime and concrete would seem to be the sort of work which the University should undertake, but that a practical man who had some scientific insight into the ceramics industry might be recruited for the staff of any technical school that might be established. Such a man would be useful in dealing with practical problems; he should work in close contact with the University's en- gineering and scientific laboratories.

61. Mr. MacKichan was of opinion that if a ceramics instructor were recruited for a technical school, he should be attached to the University for the purposes of research work. He also suggested that additional instruction in building materials might form a useful complement to the curriculum through which students of the En- gineering Faculty now pass, and that the ceramics instructor of the Technical School might give this instruction at the University.

62. The Taikoo Professor of Engineering to whom these representations were sent has pointed out that both the Professor of Civil Engineering and the Professor of Mechanical Engineering have conducted a considerable amount of research work in the University on building materials and this in spite of their having had no encourage- ment either from the University or from private firms; that facilities for standard tests in all materials have been offered, and that warnings have frequently been issued to local buyers that poor materials are used, because standard tests are not always insist- ed upon, The Taikoo Professor refers to the fact that some years ago in 1918 he thinks practically all the Far Eastern timbers were tested and the results published. He explains that the Board of the Faculty of Engineering would be glad to continue these researches provided that (i) the expenses were guaranteed and (ii) that the work would be done under the supervision either of the Professor of Mechanical Engineer- ing or of the Professor of Civil Engineering; that no outsider could be allowed to use the University's Materials Laboratory but that a special demonstrator appointed in connexion with this research work would be of great use.

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