l6 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



condemnation can scarcely be too strong-. Facilities for better 

 and wider education in letters, in agriculture and industry, are 

 being granted, but there is much leeway to make up. And the 

 devising of an adequate and progressive system of political 

 representation should not be beyond the power of a community 

 like ours. 



Referring to the larger aspects of race difference, Sir 

 Douglas Haig has recently observed : 



These and other problems which must, unsolved, give rise to mighty 

 wars are capable of solution by giving to all races, however insignificant, 

 what we proudly regard as British freedom and justice, and thereby, in 

 the course of many years, levelling them up to our own standard. 



Perhaps the first practical difficulty in developing these 

 aspirations arising out of native consciousness is the financial 

 one. Money ! Yes, it will cost money. So it does to keep out 

 East Coast fever ; but Science says, " Dip !" and the money has to 

 1)6 found. It costs money to get better crops; but Science 

 says, " Phosphates," and they have to be obtained from some- 

 where. It costs money to improve the industrial output ; but 

 ."-^^cience says the old machinery is wasted power, and Economics 

 comes along and scraps it. Is it necessary to point out the 

 analogy? Vested interests say, " It will cost us much in the v/ay 

 of social prestige, return for our labour, and in the profits on 

 our capital " ; but Science declares by every analog}' of natural 

 law, and by each disclosure of experiment, that if the Best will 

 not improve the Worst, then the Worst will drag down the Best. 

 Social questions which involve money do not, after all, take long 

 to right themselves by natural processes of readjustment. 



Sir William Ramsay, whose word should not be without 

 weight in these circles, observes that, '' The test of civilization 

 is prevision ; care to look forward, to provide for to-morrow ; 

 the morrow of the race as well as the morrow of the individual ; 

 and he who looks furthest ahead is best able to cope with Nature 

 and to conquer her." 



Our Geography defies our puny eft'orts to destroy it ; we are 

 here together for better or for worse. Our History refuses to 

 be blotted out ; we came here and must fulfil the responsibilities of 

 being here. Our Science discloses the inexorableness of Nature''? 

 laws and bids us obey them. Our Consciousness as men. buili 

 on the solidarity of the race, though manifested in great diver- 

 sity, bids us be true to our higher instincts; be faithful to the 

 best in the best; join hands for the destruction of the worst in 

 the worst ; and aid the rise of all who seek to climb the eternal 

 heights. 



