INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 5 



Federal and States Governments. All united in cordial support 

 of the proposal, and old linancial difficulties were dispelled by the 

 far-sighted generosity of our political rulers. The Government 

 of the Commonwealth, acting officially for all Australia, sent a 

 formal invitation, which was unanimously accepted by the British 

 Association for the year 1914. It was my good fortune to attend 

 the Sheffield meeting last September, and to speak there with 

 the High Commissioner as the inviting deputation ; and I can 

 bear testimony to the hearty feeling that prevailed and to the 

 strong desire shown b}' many of Britain's most distinguished 

 scientific men to profit by this opportunity of seeing Australia, 

 to study its science on the spot, and to play a part in what will 

 surely prove a great event in the history of Imperial unity. It 

 remains for us here to do our part in the time that intervenes to 

 make the meeting of 1914 as brilliant, as memorable, as it should 

 be ; and I know that our own members, who are interested most 

 in the scientific work of the Congress, will labour to this end with 

 those to whom its Imperial significance chiefly appeals. As far 

 as possible, it will have to be arranged that the British Association 

 shall visit and receive its welcome in each State in turn, so that 

 a very large amount of local organisation will be called for. For 

 this, of course, there is plenty of time within the next three years. 

 Meanwhile we may congratulate ourselves and our founder, 

 Professor Liversidge, that the hopes which led him to form this 

 Association are at last realised. The British Association's visit 

 to Australia is assured. 



I have referred to the fact that national progress — indeed, the 

 progress of man— depends on the Advancement of Science, but I 

 would not be understood to mean by this that all progress is 

 necessarily material. Too often, I think, people take us in this 

 sense ; and perhaps it is sometimes our own fault that they 

 confuse science with useful inventions or processes which result 

 from the application of Science to practical problems. These are, 

 of course, important, inevitable, and heartily welcome. But 

 Science itself is the true knowledge of the workings of Nature, and 

 any new glimpse of the truth is its advancement. And who can 

 doubt that man's progress on the mental and moral side is as 

 dependent as his material well-being on this search for truth ? 

 Or that it is best from every point of view for the votaries of 

 Science, as a rule, to leave practical results to take care of them- 

 selves and make the increase of natural knowledge their single 

 aim ? There is no more fascinating or absorbing quest — none, I 



