372 president's address — section e. 



the past five years it was well nigh impossible to get access to 

 them except by express authority of the Secretary of State. 

 There was and still is good reason for exercising caution. These 

 despatches contain evidence that sometimes affects the reputations 

 of men now dead, but whose families are still alive and occupying 

 important positions of trust and social responsibility. Naturally 

 enough the Governors, who are the guardians of these despatches, 

 are anxious that these important documents shall not be placed 

 at the disposal of those whose judgment is immature or whose 

 discretion could not be relied upon. A man who did not know 

 where to draw the line between personal scandal and scientific 

 information could make mischief. 



Within the past five years, however, the matter has been 

 under the consideration of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 

 and since the visit of Sir Charles Lucas to these parts important 

 changes have been made. The responsibility of throwing open 

 the despatch room at Government House has been shifted partly 

 on to the shoulders of the local Government, and it is now possible 

 for picked men to get access to the despatches in the Government 

 Houses of the States, up to a specified date, provided it is clear to 

 the Governor and his responsible advisers that they are reliable and 

 efficient students who will use and not abuse the privileges extended 

 to them. 



This is a valuable concession, but something more might be 

 done, and I think could be done, if the governing bodies of the 

 Public Libraries throughout the Commonwealth were to make a 

 joint petition to the Secretary of State requesting that duplicates 

 of all despatches up to a date fixed upon should be transferred 

 from Government House to the Public Library in each State. It 

 is not to be expected that despatches of a recent date shall be 

 placed indiscriminately before the public ; but a date can always 

 be fixed by the Imperial authorities, beyond which political feeling 

 is hardly likely to be reckoned with. Duplicates of all the 

 despatches written before that date might with great profit to 

 students be placed in some public institution ; not only the 

 ordinary despatches, but those also which are marked " con- 

 fidential " and " private." As to " secret " despatches, I should 

 be inclined to say that none of them ought to be made public 

 without the personal inspection and sanction of the Governor. 



In discussing the material for scientific research in history it 

 will be clear that I am recommending a course which constitutes 

 a departure from the traditional syllabus of Oxford and Cambridge, 

 where the honours student is expected to devote himself to original 

 work in a period of British or Continental history. I do so 

 advisedly. 



To begin with, the " original work " done in the honours 

 school of history at Oxford and Cambridge is not original at all. 

 Specific books are prescribed, and the trail has been followed by 

 dozens and even hundreds of students long ago. In this regard the 



