Presidential Address. xxxiii 



(c.) For providing facilities for research in every institution in which 



problems are. being seriously attacked. Such institutions should 



receive sympathetic aid from the State. The Fish-hatchery at 



Portobello, in which investigations are being carried on with the 



object of conserving and improving the supply of fish for the 



whole of New Zealand, is an institution which is worthy of 



much help. The Cawthron Institute, too, in which researches 



are carried out on such technical subjects as soil-chemistry, the 



diseases of crops, the control of insect pests, and the utilization 



of waste products, could not in fairness be overlooked. 



(d.) For the continuing of the present system of grants to private 



workers, a class which has contributed a very large proportion of 



the scientific papers published in the Transactions of the Institute. 



I am of the opinion that a very grave mistake will be made if in any 



general scheme for research the New Zealand Institute, which for so many 



years has devoted its attention to this problem, is not given a place of 



great prominence. 



One fact which greatly militates against the advancement of science in 

 New Zealand and the production of a continuous output of expert research 

 work is the lack of employment for qualified graduates when they leave 

 the University. One of the most admirable points in the New Zealand 

 University system is that for a candidate to obtain honours in any science 

 he must, in addition to the examination, present a thesis containing the 

 result of his own original work. The obtaining of the M.Sc. degree, then, 

 is to some extent a guarantee that the science graduate has reached the 

 research standard, and I can certify that the work which has been pre- 

 sented by many of the candidates in chemistry has been very good indeed. 

 When, however, the graduate leaves the University he generally finds it 

 difficult to obtain in New Zealand a position in which his advanced know- 

 ledge can be employed, and the more enterprising amongst these men leave 

 the country, and, as a rule, do not return. No community can afford 

 to lose a large proportion of its best talent, and it is little consolation to 

 know that many of these men are now holding positions of distinction in 

 England, India, America, and Australia. I am sure you will be pleased to 

 know that all the professors of chemistry in New Zealand are University 

 graduates who have returned to their native land after post-graduate study 

 in England or on the Continent of Europe. Although we can scarcely hope 

 to retain the most brilliant of our graduates — men of the calibre of R. C. 

 Maclaurin and Ernest Rutherford — nevertheless many would return to New 

 Zealand if some systematic attempt were made to provide suitable employ- 

 ment for them. It would, I believe, be in the interests of the whole country 

 if a certain number of Civil Service appointments were made annually of 

 honours graduates, who would be attached to specified Departments as 

 research officers, and who would carry out investigations under the direc- 

 tion of the scientific head of the Department. A condition of these appoint- 

 ments should be that the officers must not be called away to do ordinary 

 routine work when the Department became short-handed, but that they 

 should devote themselves to the researches which they were undertaking, 

 and to no other work. In agriculture alone there must be many problems 

 which could be worked out under the direction of the Dominion Agricul- 

 tural Chemist or Biologist. The Dominion Analyst, too, could, I am sure, 

 find important researches for a number of these investigators. If these 

 officers proved efficient, facilities should be given for them to rise to posi- 

 tions of high salaries, for their work for the nation would be of extraordi- 

 nary value. Difficulties would no doubt be met in establishing such a 

 scheme, but I am convinced that if the scheme were properly organized 



ii — Trans. 



