■SECTION C. 



29.— PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 

 By Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bart., M.I.C.E. 



" Where\er and by whatever means sound learning and useful 

 knowledge are advanced, there to us are friends. Whoever is privi- 

 leged to step beyond his fellows on the road to scientific discovery 

 ^vill receive our applause, and if need be. our help. Welcoming and 

 joining in the labour of all, we shall keep our place among those 

 who clear the roads and remove the obstacles from the paths of 

 science, and whatever be our own success in the rich fields which lie 

 -before us, however little we may now know, we shall prove that in 

 this our day we knew^ at least the value of knowledge, and joined 

 heart and hands in the endeavour to promote it." These were the 

 ■closing words of Mr. John Philipps, the President of the British 

 Association when he delivered his Address at the meeting held at 

 Birmingham in 1865, and they well and fitly convey the aim, the 

 iscope, and the spirit of the South African Association of Science 

 which has just been inaugurated, and of which this is the first 

 meeting. 



The aim of the Guilds and Societies of the Middle Ages was 

 to guard their trade secrets, to conceal their methods of production; 

 the broader-minded spirit of the 20th century is to spread the 

 knowledge of every new discovery likely to tend to the further in- 

 crease and economy of production and to publish the best methods 

 of organisation, so as to arrive at getting the best results at the lowest 

 <;ost. It is owing to the magnanimous way in which rival firms and 

 rival nations competing for trade and markets are generally glad and 

 willing to show their methods to each other, as well as to the now 

 recognised value of research, and to the enormously increased means 

 of communication throughout the world that improvements have 

 been made sO' rapidly in the last few years in ever\' branch of manu- 

 facture. The aim of our Association is to foster the vitality of 

 scientific research, and to disseminate its result, so to encourage 

 economical production, and to do our share to increase the 

 resources and wealth of South Africa. 



Not many years ago there was a division, a barrier, between 

 those who claimed to be scientific men and those who called them- 

 selves practical. The latter reckoned that they had always got on 

 well enough without so-called science, and believed that their share 

 in the world's work was the most important, whereas scientific men 

 looked upon themselves as a class apart. We are now getting beyond 

 that stage, and we recognise the importance and the necessity of the 

 work both of the chemist and his laborator}-, and of the business man 

 who applies and utilises the knowledge of nature. If we here duly 

 ^understand the value of the intimate relations between science and 



