PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 5 



quence been seen to be applicable to nations as well as to 

 individuals, and that under these inexorable laws the very 

 existence of a State may be imperilled by ignorance or neglect. 

 It is thus more important than ever that statesmen and leaders 

 of the people shall not only be men of probity and high general 

 character, but men of wide knowledge and penetrating fore- 

 thought. They must have studied and must know all the possi- 

 bilities of both land and people. On the material side they 

 must have reckoned up the mineral resources, the agricultural 

 resources, the water-power and other forms of potential 

 enetgy, the harbour accommodation, the waterways, and the 

 advantages of the geographical position for over-sea com- 

 merce. On the human side, they must have noted the natural 

 gifts and weaknesses of the people, the best means of develop- 

 ing the former and of correcting the latter; and if it should 

 be that there are varieties of race and colour in the population 

 they must have thought out plans not only for preventing loss 

 of power through internal friction, but for obtaining the close 

 co-operation of all the races in the general national interest. 

 In the future, it is only in a relative sense that there will con- 

 tinue to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water": the 

 State that aims at being in the forefront will have to see that 

 even its wood-hewing and its water-drawing are done intel- 

 ligently and to the best advantage. Further, the exploitation 

 of any race in the interest of a higher race will be fatal folly 

 when the need exists for exploiting all races in the interests of 

 the State. 



These considerations make it readily appear that the first 

 g'reat duty of the State towards science is to provide an effec- 

 tive and comprehensive system of National Eclucation. In the 

 lower stages of the system direct and formal instruction m 

 science need not bulk very largely : what is essential is that 

 the pupil shall throughout his course be trained to observe, 

 to think, and to reason. In the middle stages — the stages 

 covered by Secondary Schools of all classes — the actual study of 

 science, and especially of scientific method, must form a larger 

 and ever-increasing part of the curriculum. Under neither of 

 these heads, however, need we enter into detail to-night: it is 

 sufficient for our present purpose to insist in connection with 

 both on the desirability (i) of fostering rather than repressing 

 the natural curiosity of the young, (2) of constantly recurring 

 to the study of things in supplement to that of words, (3) of 

 training the hands in the use of appropriate tools other than 

 the pen, (4) of gradually introducing research methods into 

 class-room work. It is the neglect of this advice that has been 

 a main cause in the retardation of science : it has also helped 

 to make school-life a byword for dulness, and in many cases 

 made the after-life unintellectual and even trivial. 



When we come to the higher stages — the stage of the Uni- 

 versity, and more practical institutions co-ordinate therewith — 

 the interest in our subject naturally increases, for there we look 

 not only for instruction in science and training in scientific 



