76 Proceedings. 



fault to find with this part of the arrangements, but the work so far of the Board 

 at its annual meeting, and of the executive at their more frequent meetings, is 

 confined to matters relating to the minor affairs of the Institute and its financial 

 arrangements. At the general meeting the annual report and the general report 

 and balance-sheet are submitted, and if necessary there is then an opportunity for 

 discussion. Hitherto any time that we have had at the general meetings has 

 been devoted to the reading and criticizing and passing of these reports and the 

 election of the officers. It is true much has been done since the passing of the 

 new Act in the matter of initiating the new system of dealing with the affairs of 

 the Institute, and that good work has been done in this direction, but I do not 

 think we should consider we have done hitherto all that we should have done or 

 that we ought to do at the annual meeting of the Governors of this Institute. 

 This Institute occupies a position which is likely to remain unique, inasmuch 

 as it is and will be, if properly administered, the sole scientific body in the Do- 

 minion of New Zealand. Here I may again remind you that imder the new Act 

 the various local societies which are working now in the chief centres of New Zea- 

 land are not, as aforetime, affiliated to the Institute, but they are the Institute, 

 though they may have an independent existence : under the regulations they are 

 the Institute. It seems to me, however, that at our annual meeting we should not 

 meet expecting only to receive the reports, make suggestions on them, pass the 

 annual accounts, and confer prizes and medals, but that we should look forward 

 to a time when the Board of Governors will be recognized as the central authority 

 for the co-ordination of official and private inquiry into scientific matters in the 

 Dominion of New Zealand. It is well known that in our great Empire of India 

 the Government constituted in 1902 a Buard of Scientific Advice for India, which 

 originally consisted of the heads of the Meteorological, Geological, Botanical, Forest. 

 Survey, Agricultural, and Veterinary Departments. At the same time they inti- 

 mated their intention to invite from time to time to serve upon it other scientific 

 officers in the service of the Imperial and Provincial Governments whose special 

 attainments might render their assistance desiralile. The Board was declared to 

 be a central authority for the co-ordination of official inquiry, its object being to 

 insure that the work of research is distributed to the best advantage, that each 

 investigator confines his researches to the subject with which he is most capable 

 of dealing, and that energy is not dissipated by the useless duplication of inquiries 

 or misdirected by a lack of inter-departmental co-operation. It was also hoped 

 that while the claims of abstract science w'ould continue to be recognized in the 

 work of the scientific departments, the Board's advice would aid the Government 

 of India in prosecuting practical research into those questions of economic or 

 applied science on the solution of which the progressive prosperity of the country, 

 especially as regards its agricultural and industrial development, so largely depends. 

 The lioard advises generally upon the operations of the departments, with due 

 attention to the economic side of their work, and serves as a reference on all matters 

 connected with the organization of scientific inquiry in Indi;t. It annually dis- 

 cusses the proposals of each depaitmental head in legard to the programme of 

 investigation in his department, and in cases where inter-departmental co-operation 

 is necessary it advises as to the lines on which mutual assistance should be given 

 and the department to which the inquiry should primarily appertain. It submits 

 annually to the Government a general programme of research, embodying the pro- 

 posals of the depaitmental heads in so far as its subjects are to be exclusively dealt 

 with in one department, and its own proposals in cases where two or more depart- 

 ments are to co-operate, and at the end of the year it presents a brief review of 

 the results obtained during the year in all lines of scientific investigation controlled 

 by its members. 



Although I (In not consider that this or any other similar scheme could be 

 adopted /« foin, yet I hold that the principle is a good one. Hitherto in matters 

 of scientific research, public and private, we have been largely opportunists, possibly 

 by force of circumstances ; but I do not think it would require much argument to 

 convince you that co-operation and scientific organization of the various branches 

 of lesearch which are so largely interdependent on each other would be desirable 

 and economical, and that it would be a great advantage to arrange such investiga- 

 tion on lines by which mutual assistance could be given. Take the universities, 

 for instance : for some time past research has been carried on, notwithstanding 

 disabilities of various kinds — such as want of necessary literature and other dis- 

 abilities — in the biological laboratories of the University Colleges; a number of papers 

 showing a considerable amount of hard work have been produced, and many of them 

 printed in our Transactions. It would seem that more scientific good would result 

 from intelligent co-opei'ation in the choice of subjects for investigation, also in 



