president's address. 21 



of harmony with it. This iinfertaiuty introduces the teinj^tation to take chances, 

 which may l)e disastrous, and underlies the idea of the "Gamble out West." 



What Australia needs to learn, by the guidance and co-operation of Science 

 — and there is no Ijetter way of doing' it — is, how to insure against damage by 

 droughts. That is: — (1) How to prevent the production of "necessitous farm- 

 ers,'' re<]uiring St&te aid, to the amount of about £1,000,000, in order to re- 

 habilitate themselves after a visitation of drought. The State Trea^surer reports 

 that, already, £600.000 has been disbursed for this purpose. Do hard winters 

 in the Northern Hemisphere ever or often produce "necessitous farmers" re(|uir- 

 ing to be relieved l)y the State, to such an amount ? 



(2) How to prevent droughts from cuUing the herds and Hocks, on the 

 customary colossal scale ; and from obliterating the promise of harvests . 



This can be expressed in another way — How can the man on the land in 

 Australia, with the aid of Science, learn to solve the following questions? 



1. In attempting to in.sure against, or to cope with droughts, is he at- 

 tempting to accomplish the impossible; or is he only in some districts, or in 

 some cases, trying to accomplish the impossible? 



2. Or is he attemjiting to accomplish the possible (a) in the right way; or 

 ( b ) with good intentions, l)ut with insufficient knowledge or equipment, or with 

 inadequate resources? 



From time to time, especially on festive occasions, important j'ersonages in- 

 dulge in forecasting the future population of Australia as 100 millions, or even 

 200 millions, and in descanting upon the necessity of filling up the empty spaces 

 of the continent, but, in the reports of their speeches in the newspapers, as far 

 as I have seen, without insisting on the very necessary stipulation — if and when 

 Australia learns, or is going to learn, or has learned, how to cope with drought 

 problems. The strengfh of a chain is the strength of the weakest link. The 

 population that Australia can support, is the population that she can safely carry 

 when droughts come. The State is recovering in part from a very severe ex- 

 perience of drought. Great activity is lieing displayed in all the States in the 

 way of facilitating the settlement of returned soldiers, and immigrants on the 

 land. This Meeting seems to me to Ije an opportune occasion for asking what, I 

 think, is a proper and a ]>ertinent question, because drought problems are 

 primarily scientific problems, and, therefore, the guidance and co-operation of 

 Science is needeil for their solution. The question, I would ask, is the twofold, 

 neglected question — How is it, seeing that drought-problems are so very important, 

 that we ha\e no Handbook, or Manual, or fade mecum of Australian Drought- 

 Problems; and if not, why not; and how soon may we look forward to having 

 one? We have manuals of the flora, of the fauna, of the birds, of the fishes, of 

 the fungi, of the fodder-plants and gi'asses, of the minerals and fossils, and so 

 on : and we know them to be of fundamental importance, and to be most helpful 

 and suggestive, in the investigation of problems to which thej' relate. In antici- 

 pation of the visit of Members of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science in 1914. an admirable series of Handbooks, one for each of the older 

 States, and one for the Commonwealth as a whole, was published. These served 

 not only for the enlightenment of the visitors, but are standard works of reference 

 to-day. Wliat I have in view is something different from these, and something 

 which is not intended in any way to clash with, or supersede the publications of 

 the State Department of Agi-iculture, for example, some of which contain articles 

 bearing upon some aspect or other of drought-problems. It is not to be a l)Ook 



