PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. li 



established that research in both pure and applied science is most 

 vigorous and is pursued with greatest enthusiasm. "Whenever 

 directors of industries begin to discover that research men whom 

 they have been accustomed to think unpractical and visionary can, 

 working in their laboratories, sometimes help them in ways that 

 their practical shop-trained workmen were powerless to do, the 

 first step on the road to a complete understanding will have been 

 taken. I believe it is through the work of the technical college 

 on problems having the most obvious practical bearing that there 

 is the best chance of that first step being made possible. Then once 

 the value of research work is appreciated in industrial circles there 

 will no longer be difficulty in getting men to take an interest in 

 scientific work, and our Institute, no longer obliged to go into the 

 highways and hedges in order to compel men to come and fill up 

 its programmes, will be embarrassed with the wealth of papers at 

 its disposal. 



There is one mistake which can do a great deal to retard the 

 good understanding between science and industry, from which, 

 if it came about, so much is to be expected. It is the mistake of 

 underestimating the severity of the training required for effective 

 research work in a physical science, and, in consequence over- 

 estimating the value of the half-trained student of science to an 

 employer. The only kind of scientific man who can be of real 

 service in industrial work unless the service required is some 

 comparatively simple routine analysis is a man of the highest 

 training. The training of the evening school or of the high school 

 or of the ordinary college course in science is absolutely without 

 value for this purpose. 



The Institute in the Public Service. 



Last year the Institute endeavoured with some success to 

 arouse public interest in the problems that are embarrassing our 

 fisheries. I would venture to hope that our society, without losing 

 interest in the fisheries, would this year give a share of its 

 attention to one of the most serious industrial problems facing the 

 province the conservation of our forests. A few weeks ago one 

 of the leading lumbermen of the world, writing in the London 

 Times, expressed the opinion, after careful study of the matter, 



