12 president's address. 



Now it is some promising line of investigation, some experiments 

 that only want making to put the finishing touch to a long line 

 of reasoning, and establisli some new scientific fact or some new 

 law of nature. Now it is a new view of an old and well-fought 

 <lifiiculty, some new vantage ground that promises success ; but 

 lie cannot leave the pressing duties of the pi'esent hour to work 

 out the promising future. And for him to meet those who have 

 time and ability to work is like hope in the wilderness, and if our 

 association can bring them together it will have done much to 

 promote science. It has been said that amateurs at science do 

 little in the more difficult subjects of investigation ; but those 

 who say so overlook tlie fact tliat, wlien a man does do diffi- 

 cult work, they cease to call him an amateur, and class him with 

 professional men. It is a well-known fact that some of the greatest 

 honours in scientific work have been won, and are being won, 

 by men who would be properly classed as amateurs — men who 

 have stolen from leisure and from sleep the hours necessary for 

 their favourite study. It is a mistake to class all amateurs as 

 alike. As well say that all business men are alike. Science 

 seems ever to point forward. The question answered to-day 

 suggests two for to-morrow. There may be no halting place, and 

 none is desired. Obedience to the law of service develops into a 

 service of love, and the search for truth is the pleasure of 

 existence. And if we are ti-ue to our colours we will see that 

 truth is not stored away in dusty papers, but published to the 

 woi'ld, so that everyone may see what and how it is. The British 

 Association has put the best men to do this, and to publish the 

 known facts in every science to the world, and has found this tlie 

 best method of helping that great majority wlio ai'e ready and 

 willing to help if taken up to the front and shown clearly the 

 boundary between what is known and what is unknown. It is 

 this noble example that we wish to follow. The Australasian 

 Association is for the advancement of science, and if it fails in 

 that, it will fall to pieces. But it is not the hobby of a few indi- 

 viduals, or of one colony ; it takes in all who wish to advance 

 science in all the colonies ; it meets here this year, in Melboui'ne, 

 pi'obably, next year; going to another colony eveiy year, gather- 

 ing up the enthusiasm of each colony in turn, and will come 

 back to us when we are very glad to I'eceive it. By its charter 

 tlie association is bound to promote tlie intercourse of scientific 

 men and lovers of science ; to give a stronger impulse and a more 

 .systematic direction to scientific inquiry ; to obtain a public 

 recognition for the claims of science, and to endeavour by eveiy 

 means in its power to promote scientific inquiry ; to grapple with 

 the scientific questions that effect the material advancement of 

 this portion of the British dominions — questions in chemistry, 

 physics, and geology ; in mining, mineralogy, and engineering ; 

 in meteorology, water conservation, and irrigation ; and eveiy 



