144 president's address. — section d. 



and utilitarian, they will fail woefully, for therei must always 

 t© in all the sciences a large body of free and unharnessed workers 

 if they are to progress. It^ is of course always possible that a 

 brilliant researcher may appear in a government scientific denart- 

 ment, just as a black sheep sometimes appears in a blameless pure 

 white flock, but unless he can be given a free hand such as the 

 mechanism of a government department rarely permits, he will 

 almost inevitably be suppressed and be unable to find full scope 

 for his talent, or will be forced to transfer his zeal and genius 

 elsewhere', as has often happened in the past. Can any one 

 conceive of Charles Darwin being allowed, as a government oflficer, 

 to spend years of his time working out the Descent of Man and 

 the Origin of .Species while the red tape remained untied, the 

 official forms unfilled, the correspondence unanswered, and the 

 stamps unlicked ? The Admiralty refused Huxley permission to 

 do scientific work now recognised to be of the utmost scientific 

 importancei, and in order to carry it onti he was oibliged to resign 

 and to submit to a long period of partial starvation. 



This criticism is not a criticism of government departments, 

 but is a w^arning against expecting them to carry' out work for 

 which they are not suited. The function of a government depart-" 

 ment is rathei' to look after the every-day affairs of the present 

 than to provide for the future, whereas scientific research has 

 mainly for its object to provide for future progress and advance- 

 ment. Neither the public nor the politicians whoi represent it 

 can easily be persuaded to place on the Estimates for 1921 

 provision for' work which may not bei completed or useful until 

 1951, provided that is, it is net a vote for the establishment of 

 the Federal Capital, which can hardly be classed as research 

 work. 



If the activities of the Federal Bureau and of Government 

 scientific departments arei planned on the lines indicated, if they 

 are liberally encouraged, and if encouragement is also given to 

 unofficial scientific work, then we shall be better able to maintain 

 our position as a civilized nation, and will be better equipped to' 

 hold our own in the world's ccck-pit^ should wei ever be left 

 wdthout the Mother Country's hand to help us. At present our 

 welfare mainly depends, and will depend for a long time to 

 come on our primary industries. The problems which confront 

 these industries, and which are of the weightiest economic import- 

 ance, are mainly problems which can only be solved by the 

 application of botanical and zoological science, using these terms 

 in the broadest sense, and the encouragement of thesei sciences 

 may repay itself an hundred-fold, and may contribute in the 

 highest degree to the advancement of Australia. 



