544 Proceedings. 



Each of these men has produced vast changes in the science in which he laboured. 



Another man, less known, less distinguished perhaps, has an interest for us, since 

 he used his great mathematical knowledge for the benefit of New Zealand. Mr. F. W. 

 Frankland, son of Sir Edward Frankland, came to New Zealand in 1875 to recuperate 

 from a breakdown in health. He entered the Government Insurance Department, 

 ultimately becoming Government Actuary and Registrar of Friendly Societies. Always 

 alive to the possibility of scientific expansion and improvement in life - insurance 

 methods, Frankland originated and introduced into New Zealand the regulation that 

 in the registration of deaths of males the particulars of the family left should also be 

 recorded, and the data so obtained have been found of great value by actuaries all 

 over the world. He was, too, of a philosophical turn of mind, and a paper by him 

 was published in our Transactions, entitled " Mind Stuff." 



These men died at a ripe age after a life of active research ; but I cannot forbear 

 to refer to the many young scientific men who had already shown promise of brilliant 

 attainment whose lives have been cut short abruptly during this pitiless and horrible 

 war. Mention may be made of Dr. Jennings, Lieutenant Athol Hudson, and other 

 New-Zealanders of promise. Amongst them also was a young Oxford zoologist, Geoffrey 

 Smith, thirty-four years of age, who had done some very original experimental work 

 in the endeavour to ascertain the physiological causes of secondary sexual characters. 

 By a masterly association of ideas he showed the analogy between the physiological 

 regulation in parasitized crabs and the phenomenon of regulation which produce 

 immunity in bacterial disease. 



But this war is taking a tremendous toll of the younger scientific men, and when 

 we realize the prime importance of science, in peace as well as in war, and the value 

 of their work in industries, it is extremely saddening to read, week after week, in 

 Nature, the records of brilliant young scientific men who have been sacrificed to this 

 war. At first these men were allowed to enlist in any capacity, instead of being 

 retained for work for which their scientific training rendered them valuable. It is 

 deplorable that these young scientific men were permitted at the outbreak of the war 

 to enlist in the combatant forces : it is only one of many indications of the neglect to 

 make use of skilled men in work in which they are experts which characterizes the 

 Governments of British countries, and which one is inclined to attribute to their 

 ignorance of science, and especially of the science of organization. 



These young scientific men would have been of immense value behind the fighting- 

 line during the war, as well as in the future peace, as we believe that the need of 

 scientific qualifications in the reconstruction of Empire is of prime importance. But, 

 unfortunate as this is, we have no right to differentiate between this deplorable 

 wastage of trained scientific men and the awful decimation of the young manhood of 

 the Empire, for in their loss the Empire is losing the potential fathers of the race. 

 The most vigorous, most unselfish, most intelligent, and bravest representatives of all 

 classes, from the heir to an earldom to the humblest labourer, are the men of the 

 highest eugenic value to the race, and the loss of these men is extremely serious for 

 the future of the race. 



It is time that I turned to the activities of our Institute : — 



1. The financial position of the New Zealand Institute ie a matter for perennial 

 discussion, and I fear that in this the third year of the present war little can be done 

 to better it. It has been pointed out again and again that the statutory grant still 

 stands at the figure it was forty-eight years ago, when the condition of fife in the colony 

 (as it was then) was very different from what it was in 1914 : when the cost of printing 

 was less and the scientific activity less. Yet in all these years only on two occasions 

 have we had any definite increase of our annual grants of £250. But we cannot look, 

 I presume, for any immediate assistance from Parliament. There will be, when peace 

 is declared, a period of financial stringency, during which, I much fear, all sorts of 

 economy will take place wherever possible. But the half-crown levy on our members 

 will no doubt be of some assistance : it has this year added more than £100 to our 

 income. 



It may be that many members of the local branches will prefer to forgo the 

 volume of Transactions. It no longer appeals to the general public as it did before it 

 was truly and wholly a scientific publication. In those earlier days, you will remember, 

 it was customary to print in extenso the annual reports of the various presidents, 

 popular lectures, curious articles on pseudo-scientific subjects, and other matters. 

 These were all intelligible to and of interest to the non-scientific members. But to-day, 

 when we have succeeded in eliminating everything but what is of scientific value — 

 when the papers, or most of them, are couched in technical terms — and the Transactions 

 have thereby become a valuable record of scientific research done in the Dominion, it 

 follows that the volume is lacking in interest to our lay members. 



