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Meetings of Committees During 1 the year 95 meetings of standing committees have taken place in addition to 27 formal conferences and approximately 40 informal conferences, a total of 162 meetings. Standard Specifications issued Regular Standard Specifications.—Thirty-eight Regular Standard Specifications were adopted during the year. Of these, 17 relate to electrical engineering, 12 to mechanical engineering, 5 to chemistry, and 4 to building materials and construction. Five of these 33 Standard Specifications originated, and were developed, in New Zealand. The remaining 33 are British Standards which have been carefully examined by appropriate committees and affected interests, with a view to determining their suitability for adoption as New Zealand Standards. In addition, !) revisions of British Standards previously adopted as New Zealand Standards have been endorsed. Eight Standard Specifications were withdrawn during the year, bringing the total of existing Regular Standards to 387. Emergency Standard Specifications.—Thirty-six War Emergency Standards were completed during the year. Of those, 11 are simplified practice specifications, 10 relate to overseas purchasing, 5 are commodity Standards, 4 relate to civil defence, and 4 to mechanical engineering, while 2 are paint Standards. The total number of Standard Specifications adopted during the year is therefore 74, as listed in the appendix hereto. The year's work therefore increases the War Emergency Standards to 118 and the Regular Standards to 387, making a grand total of 505 Standard Specifications, Standard Mark Since the last report was presented, the Standard mark has been registered as a certification trade-mark in the thirty-four classes covering all marketable commodities, as provided in the Standards Act, 1941. The registration of this mark gives effect in New Zealand to a recommendation of the Imperial Conference, 1930, in the following terms: — " The Conference recommends that each standardizing body should adopt a mark or brand to be applied under the license and control of such body l to goods which comply with Standard Specifications issued by it and are produced or manufactured within the territory which it covers; and should take the necessary steps to secure for such mark or brand the full protection of law throughout the British Commonwealth of Nations, whether by its registration wherever possible as a standardization trade-mark or in some other appropriate way." The Standard mark will be made available, under license, to manufacturers and other trading interests for use on commodities. In this way purchasers will be enabled to distinguish goods which conform to Standard Specifications from those which do not. The main advantages of a system whereby goods manufactured or produced according to a Standard Specification are identified by having the Standard mark affixed thereto may be summarized as follows :— (a) It will give to the numerous small-quantity purchasers who cannot buy to specifications the maximum benefit of purchasing on a basis of known quality in relation to quantity and price. (b) It will discourage the manufacture of goods of inferior quality and typo, which simulate higher-quality goods in an endeavour to win the market on a basis of false confidence and lower prices. (c) It will -encourage the concentration of production on more legitimate lines and the elimination of redundant types, thus securing the fuller benefits of mass-production methods. It will also reduce the costs of distribution in proportion to the reduction of redundant types. (d) It will bring about a general recognition that Standards Specifications afford the most sensible and economic basis for business transactions because they reduce to a minimum haphazard methods of specifying, manufacturing, testing,, and buying. Simplification During the year the principle of simplification has been developed with the object of maximizing production by conserving materials, man-power, and plant capacity. The object of a simplified Practice Specification is to eliminate waste by the concentration of production on the optimum number of types, classes, and grades of commodities and by the use of the most economic processes and practices having regard for prevailing conditions. A simplified Practice Specification differs from other Standard Specifications in that it eliminates certain existing types, according to the nature of the project, whereas Regular Standard Specifications define commodities, processes, or practices not necessarily on a basis of selection from existing types, but rather in terms of prescribed requirements affecting dimensions, strength, performance, efficiency, or other characteristics. Of the 13 Emergency Standard Specifications issued during the year for purposes of simplification, 6 relate to clothing, while the remaining 7 relate to bread, footwear, glass containers, household furniture, doors, milking-machine rubberware, and filter pads for gas-producers. The value and importance of simplification as a means, of conserving material, plant capacity, and man-power in the clothing industry, for example, is soundly evidenced by statements of the War Production Board and the Office of Price Administration of the United States of America. These statements estimate that the simplification of clothing styles will save from 5 per cent, to 15 per cent, of the cloth used in each garment, according to the nature of the particular garment. This, it is stated, will represent a gain of

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