PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. IQ 



laboratories and test (lei)artnients At the present moment there 

 are live South African trained engineers undergoing a two years' 

 post-graduate course with that tirm — four from the South Afri- 

 can School of Mines and Technology and (Mie from the South 

 .Vfrican College — and. from authoritative information which I 

 have recei\ed. they are doing oxeedingly well. 



It is not mv intentitjn to attemj)! to deal fully with the many 

 problems with which St)uth Africa teems, even those which 

 bear on the development of our great country. Unfortunately, 

 many of our problems have, for some reason or other, been con- 

 verted into political questions, and at this non-political gather- 

 ing, anything savouring (^f politics must be rigidly excluded. 

 Mr. Merriman has said that there is too much ])olitics in this 

 country; those who belong to no political party will. I think, 

 agree with him. Almost every man and woman in Sotith Africa 

 is a politician, and we send 41 lawyers to Parliament. One of 

 our members who combines the pa.stime of ardent sociology with 

 the ])rofessional pursuit of science, advocates government by 

 fitnction, according to which the only reason for sending a man, 

 or woman, to Parliament, would be special fitness as an expert 

 on some particular subject, or as a representative of some par^ 

 ticular interest. Political cleavages are not doing this country 

 any good. Let the advice of the Administrator of the Orange 

 Free State be taken in the si)irit in wliich it has l)een offered: 

 " Last year." he is re])orted to have said, " the Unit)n imported 

 leather goods to an amount almost etpial to that which farmers 

 got for their wool. Whilst they were (|uarrelling about small 

 matters, thev were realh' forgetting the things that mattered. 

 Each vear grain to the value of f 1.500,000 was imi)orted, 

 although the South African climate was excellentlv suited for 

 grain production. When it was dry they prayed for rain, but, 

 when the rain came, millions of tons of water were allowed to 

 run to waste to the sea. . . . Euro]jeans were only com- 

 ])aratively few in South Africa. Why, then, .should they con- 

 tinue ([uarrelling instead of developing their country?" 



Apart from the native ciuestion, ctiorts to soKe wliicli have 

 recently .been made, the principal (|uestions ti])on which iniblic 

 attention is ])eing focussed. and which liaxe recentl\ l)een fre- 

 quently discussed in Parliament, are the necessity for the in- 

 creased production of food supplies within the Union and of the 

 raw materials required in the manufacture of articles of con- 

 sumption, so as to render South Africa more independent 

 economically ; the scientific and economic survey of the natural 

 resources and potentialities of the Union, in a serious effort to 

 ascertain what is available in the form of raw materials for active 

 industrial exploitation, so as to develoj) industries using these 

 raw materials instead of, as has been so much the practice in 

 the past, exporting them and repurchasing the manufactured 

 articles at greatly enhanced ])rices'; and incidentallx . what is of 

 the greatest national imi)ortance--the training of the young citi- 



