i'ki:sii)i'..\T's Ai)DRi:ss. i.^ 



Later a company was t\)niKcl to dcvelo]) tlic inland, and 

 especially to quarry and ship the ])hosphatc. 'V\\v small fraction 

 of the wealth of the island which went to the ih-itish ( ii)\cnmient, 

 in the form of rents, royalties, and taxes, exceeded within fifteen 

 years the entire cost of the Challoujcr l-lxpedition and the ])uhlica- 

 tion of its results 



But encourai^emenl to researcli in ])ure science is not to be 

 given simply because it may ]xiy ; it should be f^iven even though 

 there is almost certainty that it never can have a practical value, 

 and it is a wholly unreasonable ])ro])osal even at this time that no 

 mathematics should Ijc investigated unless it refers to aeroplanes; 

 even the Educalional Times* is greeted with a jeer : " It contains 

 the usual series of out-of-the-way properties of conies, triangles, 

 and collections of algebraical symbols and the usual neglect of 

 aeroplanes." 



Of course at a time like this if a man has the ability and the 

 0]:)purtunity to make researches in the mathematics of acro])lanes 

 and their application, he would be expected to do so unless he 

 could make other investigations at least as useful and at any 

 time money should be spent, and spent freely, on researches 

 which have a practical application, as the L'nion Government 

 is doing in connection with diseases of animals, insect ])ests, 

 and so on. But that kind of research work cannot alone l)e ex- 

 pected at a university, nor is it the duty of a university to en- 

 courage only such research. 



The university should provide that course of theoretical 

 knowledge on which are based the great researches in ai)plied 

 science; if some of these researches can too be done at it or in 

 connection with it, practice may be kept in touch with theory, and 

 theory extended into ])ractice. Students who intend to take up 

 work in connection with manufacturers will gain some knowledge 

 of applied research work, and will be free from the distrust so 

 many British manufacturers are apt to have for research work 

 and research employes. Xo doubt this distrust is due in a 

 measure to the fact that they, trained in manufacture and know- 

 ing little of pure science, iind it difhcult to come to an adjustment 

 with men trained in pure science and inex]ierienced in manufac- 

 turing processes. 



The capture of industries by Germany is often quoted. It 

 must be remembered, however, that in the famous instance of the 

 manufacture of coal-tar dyes, two German firms spent a huge 

 sum of money in research work l^efore they had the processes 

 com])lete ; again, that before Zeiss made all the various kinds of 

 glass of which they had 'practically a monoi)oly, as Great Britain 

 found at the beginning of the war, they had employed experts 

 in optics to advise them. The experiments in Germany by Pro- 

 fessor Abbe and Dr. Schott, who continued those in England by 

 the Rev. Vernon Harcourt and Sir George Stokes, were carried 

 on for about three years before the glass manufactory, with the 



♦ Now called " Mathematical Questions and Solutions.*' 



