INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 27 



i'ar short of wliat we might Jo in the way of u.sing the scientific powers 

 of our own young people. Every year we are throwing away the ser- 

 vices of highly trained university graduates who might do good work 

 under the direction of older men, and who might at the same time 

 relieve the experts of certain routine duties, setting their brains and 

 time free for better work. Froude quotes a saying of Gk)ethe to the 

 effect that ■' once a man has done a good piece of work to the satisfac- 

 tion of the world, then the world takes good care that he shall have 

 no opportunity of repeating his performance." Goethe was certainly 

 not speaking of Australasian conditions, to which nevertheless his 

 words are singularly applicable. Is it not usual to find the scientific 

 expert so loaded with routine duties, and with work which is not 

 really scientific, that the country is being deprived of the best part of 

 liis powei'sl 



Let us see whether we cannot help him. My own experience of 

 Australian university life has convinced me of several things which 

 bear upon the question. In the first place there is good material to be 

 had. In most of the States there is a more or less effective educational 

 ladder from the primary school to the university which is much used 

 .already, and might be made more popular still. In the second place 

 the training which is given in the universities is well suited for 

 students who may aftem-ards take up research work under proper 

 direction. And, again, there is generally nothing to keep the young 

 graduates in their universities ; most of them must at once set to work 

 to earn bread and butter, and they soon scatter far and wide. A very 

 large proportion of our best students leave Australia altogether, 

 tempted by travelling or research or other scholarships tenable else- 

 where. And, lastly, the young graduate may be of inestimable help 

 to the professor or technical expert who is tiying to do research work. 

 All such work involves a great deal of attention to details, long hours 

 and days spent in observations or manipulations which are almost 

 mechanical in themselves and yet must be closely followed by some 

 one witli enthusiasm and intelligence. The research which is almost a 

 drudgery when the worker is alone, which moves with, a halting gait, 

 brightens up and begins to run when there is a willing assistant. And 

 there is another most important consideration. The assi.^tant soon 

 l:»ecomes the separate worker, if opportunity allows. No better way 

 has ever been devised of training young men into the spirit and 

 methods of research than that of allowing them to work with those of 

 greater experience. 



To what then does all this tend? In what direction .shall we 

 move? 



