LIV PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



It is 33 years since tiie first meeting of this Association was 

 opened in Sydney. Fourteen meetings have been held — the last 

 in Melbourne, in 1913. At that time we had no suspicion of the 

 years that were to intervene between the Melbourne and this our 

 present meeting. We were looking forward with great expectation 

 to the visit of the parent society — the British Association — but 

 coincident with the arrival of our overseas guests came xhe declara- 

 tion of war. It is true that the meeting was held, and that, 

 despite the depressing conditions, the programme as arranged 

 was carried through, thanks largely to the generous co-operation 

 of our guests. !N"aturally, the thoughts of many were turned away 

 from science, and would have been even still more so had we then 

 been able to I'ealize what the future years held in store. It was 

 inevitable under the existing conditions that it should have been 

 otherwise, but the general results, or, perhaps to sj)eak more 

 correctly, the .after-results were naturally not what they would 

 have been had the meeting been held under normal conditions, and 

 had our guests been free from feelings of deep and constant 

 anxiety. 



However, the visit was evidently full of great intei'est to thenr, 

 as it was to us, and every possible effort was made by the Federal 

 and State Governments, the Universities, various public bodies, 

 and private individuals to enable them to gain as much insight as 

 possible into the scientific work of Australia, the life of the people, 

 the economic conditions, and the nature and capacity of the 

 country. 



Before leaving Australia, the chief officials addressed a most 

 generous and appreciative letter to the press. After stating that 

 a much greater number of memJbers had been enrolled for this 

 Australian meeting than for any previous one, they say — " We 

 may conclude by assuring the people of Australia that the 

 announcement of a grand total for all centres of more than 4,700 

 members forms, in our view, a fitting climax to a meeting of 

 unparalleled interest to the visitors, and, we venture to hope, of 

 value to the country in which it has been held." 



Now that the war is over, we trust it may be possible to con- 

 tinue one aspect of the Avork that we hoped this meeting in 

 Australia would strongly emphasize, and that is the closer associa- 

 tion of science workers throughout the Empire. This can only be 

 brought about efficiently by periodical personal contact of investi- 

 gators, and such becomes extremely difficult in the case of a 

 scientific worker who enjoys what is commonly known as a 

 " fixed income," the purchasing power of which is continually 

 decreasing, and is now, in very many cases, much less than that 

 paid to a mechanic, who thoroughly deserves his wage, but per- 

 haps scarcely realizes that he owes this- entirely to the work of a 

 scientist, who is often paid much less than himself. 



