The New Zealand Association of Scientists is an independent association for scientists in New Zealand. It was founded in 1941 as the New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers, and renamed in 1954. It differs from the Royal Society of New Zealand in being an independent non-profit incorporated society and registered charity, rather than being constituted by an Act of Parliament. While not being entirely non-political, the Association focuses on policy, social and economic responsibility aspects of science. History The history of the Association is documented in a sequence of articles in the NZ Science Review (NZSR) written by Geoff Gregory. In addition, Gregory wrote a condensed version of these articles for the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Gregory, educated at Oxford, spent his career in information sciences in the N.Z. science sector both with the DSIR and the New Zealand Geological Survey. He edited the NZSR from 1974-1984. The first installment of the NZAS history runs from 1941 until 1954. Initially formed as the New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers, an inaugural meeting with a ‘large attendance’ was held at the Central Library Hall in Wellington in December 1941. The meeting defined the objective of the new organisation being ‘to secure the wider application of science and the scientific method for the welfare of society and to promote the interests of scientific workers’. The Association's first President was W.B. (Bill) Sutch, an economist, historian, writer, public servant, and public intellectual. Gregory's article suggests the initial impetus for the Association lay mainly with Sutch. Despite this, Sutch's involvement with the Association was brief as he was called up for military service. Sutch would later be charged and acquitted of trying to pass New Zealand Government information to the Soviet Union. Initial membership numbers were over 100. Much of the early phase of the Association was taken up in response to the Second World War. With editorials and Presidential addresses emphasising 'exploring new horizons opened up through intensive war-time research' and that the ‘future of science and of scientists must be fought for, not in the laboratory, but in the broader sphere of society’. Right from the outset the Association was focused on improving the salaries of scientific workers as well as seeking gender equality who were even more poorly paid than the average worker. Despite these initiatives, the Association determined that it was not a trade union. This