8 president's address. 



no accurate acquaintance with its conditions of use. .Some years 

 ago I saw fishermen netting whiting in an inlet of the sea some 

 one hundred and fifty miles from Sydney. They obtained ice, in 

 boxes containing saw-dust, from Sydney. The night before the 

 steamer arrived, they made a wonderful haul of whiting. They 

 considered that it was worth £:}()() at market prices. 1 watched 

 them packing the fish. They did not use a sufficient weight of ice 

 in cool the weight of fish to a temperature at which decomposition 

 would be prevented. They put all their fish in the boxes and 

 distributed the ice among them. The steamer came to time. It 

 had a fast journey to Sydney, but all the whiting was condemned. 

 I asked the fishermen if it often happened. They naively said 

 that they always lost their large catches, and hazarded the 

 opinion that the fish that occurred in large shoals, did not keep 

 so well as those in small shoals. I asked them if they considered 

 the weight of fish and ice, and they said that no fisherman ever 

 paid attention to it. Cannot science be applied in this instance' 

 Would it not be possible to mark on each box the weight of fish 

 to be placed in it with the particular quantity of ice.' 



The conditions under which fruit and vegetables can be kept 

 without decomposition, are well worthy of study by a scientist. 

 The higher temperature, the low humidity of the central and 

 western portions of the State, and the moist atmosphere of the 

 coastal belt introduce factors different from those of Europe anil 

 America. The attempts so frequently made to bring European 

 or American practice into this country are often only partially 

 successful. 



Forestry, again, needs the labours of the scientifically trained. 

 We have such great numbers of timbers in this State that little 

 is known about them. A few years ago, my attention was drawn 

 to the absence of information on these matters. The very 

 fundamentals are lacking, though in some cases work has been 

 done despite the failure of information. The specifications sent 

 from Woolwich to Australia for waggons and other vehicles used 

 for military purposes contained definite standards in regard to 

 the amounts of moisture in different woods used in the construe- 



