president's address — SECTION E. 373 



course which I have mapped out is superior. The research would 

 be more genuine, because the student would have to find the 

 material, and estimate the relative values of the authorities or 

 documents himself. 



No doubt there is plenty of genuine original research still to 

 be done in England and the Continent. But for students in the 

 Commonwealth the material for research into European subjects is 

 not available, and even if it were, the equipment in scholarship 

 necessary for the prosecution of such research is beyond us at present, 

 and any attempt to undertake it would hardly be anything more than 

 an ambition upon paper for many years to come. How many 

 students trained in our Universities are qualified to read and 

 discuss docimients in old French and mediaeval Latin, and give 

 to the world a creditable thesis based upon the study of those 

 documents ? We had better leave that class of work to scholars 

 on the other side of the world. There are plenty there to do it, 

 and do it much better than we can hope to do. Universities in 

 Great Britain and Europe are much more adequately staffed than 

 ours are, and public opinion in the Commonwealth is not yet 

 sufficiently aroused to the importance of research to justify the 

 division of chairs and the extension of the tutorial system, which 

 would enable us to turn out men properly equipped for genuine 

 research into the history of any European country. It would 

 seem to me, therefore, that it is far better for use to modify the 

 syllabus of the older Universities in such a way as to suit our 

 own needs, provided we can be sure of the quality of the work that 

 we propose to do, and of the standard that must be attained 

 before academic distinction is conferred. It will be admitted, I 

 hope, that there are some reasons put forward in this paper for 

 considering that the need for Colonial Historical research exists. I 

 may add to this that there is no comparison between the amount of re- 

 search into the history of European countries and that of the colonies 

 and the British Empire. And among the self-governing dominions of 

 the Empire there is none in which so little has been done in a 

 scientific and systematic way to explain its history as in the 

 Commonwealth of Australia. 



My argument may be summed up in a few words. The time 

 has arrived when the history of the Commonwealth should be 

 undertaken in a systematic and scientific way, and the institutions 

 through which that might be done are the Universities. The 

 historical work done there at present is preparatory, and should 

 find its fulfilment in research. The best material for research is 

 now available up to a specified date, and by means of scholarships, 

 and especially open scholarships, the right men cau be found to do it. 



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