SEPTEMBER 2/, IQI/] 



NATURE 



77 



connection with an advertisement for a mycologist 



who had to be a university graduate — at the princely 



; I inuneration of iSoZ. per annum. Science rriay be its 



own reward, but even the poor man of science must 



live. 



But all this is going to be changed. Science has 

 gained immensely in prestige since the war began. 

 The consequences of the neglect of science and tech- 

 nical training have been brought home to such an 

 extent that, terrible as that conflict is, there can be 

 no question that it has served to vitalise, as nothing 

 dse could have done, the British nation ; and, perhaps, 

 the greatest lesson of the war has been the realisation 

 of the necessity for greater scientific methods in relation 

 lit industry. The appeals of scientific and technical 

 men, which have so often been disregarded by apathetic, 

 self-satisfied, and conservative manufacturers, pursuing 

 rule-of-thumb and obsolete methods, and, by their in- 

 action, allowing so often the fruits of British brains 

 to be exploited in Germany, would now appear to be 

 falling on receptive ears, and we welcome the prospect 

 of a new era for science and scientific methods. We 

 must realise that the whole fabric of industry is based 

 on science, and Governments are now recognising it as 

 their duty to embark on a more enlightened policy by 

 promoting scientific research on a national scale!! It 

 is for associations such as this to see that the new 

 ideals are maintained. 



The Union Government established, about a year 

 ago, an Industrial Advisory- Board of business men, 

 to which a technical member was at a later date added. 

 But as a result of the representations of the Central 

 Committee of the Scientific and Technical Societies of 

 South Africa, on which this association was fully re- 

 presented, the Government agreed in March of this 

 year to the appointment of a Scientific and Technical 

 Research Committee to assist the Industries Section 

 of the Department of Mines and Industries in provid- 

 ing for industrial research, co-ordinating, so far as 

 possible, all industrial investigation and research in 

 South Africa, and collecting and disseminating all data 

 obtained ; in co-oper-ating with other Government de- 

 partments and with similar departments in the United 

 Kingdom and Dominions to obtain information already 

 available, so as to avoid overlapping, to take advantage 

 of facilities for research not available in this country, 

 and to acquire and utilise in the arts and manufactures 

 knowledge already existent in countries which are more 

 highly developed' industrially than South Africa ; in 

 carrying out an economic survey of the natural 

 resources of South Africa, and in furnishing 

 advice in regard to the best methods of utilising such 

 resources ; in furnishing advice with regard to the best 

 method of attacking industrial problems ; in inducing 

 industrial improvements and facilitating and encourag- 

 ing manufactures in suitable localities ; in co-ordinat- 

 ing various industries to obtain the best combined 

 results and exchanging between user and manufacturer 

 manufacturing improvements and operating experience ; 

 and generally in advancing the work of the department 

 on the scientific and technical side. 



The action of the Government in advertising for a 

 technical adviser, at a salary commensurate with the 

 importance of the position, is one which must be cor- 

 dially welcomed as an indication that it realises the 

 importance of the present movement. 



The Scientific and Technical Committee held its first 

 meeting at Capetown in April of this year. The pub- 

 lished list of fifty-two subjects on which it is proposed 

 to obtain the earliest and fullest existing information 

 from the most competent Jiuthorities available gives 

 some idea of the programme which the committee has 

 outlined apart from an indication of the latent poten- 

 tialities of the Union as a manufacturing country. Time 

 forbids detailed reference, but it will be observed that 

 NO. 2500, VOL. 100] 



! the invesiigation of raw materials and products from 

 ' the agricultural and pastoral industries, together with 

 I various valuable by-products, hitherto neglected, bulks 

 largely amongst the subjects. 



It is not my intention to attempt to deal fully with 

 the many problems with which South Africa teems, 

 I even those which bear on the development of our great 

 j country. Unfortunately, many of our problems have, 

 for some reason or other, been converted into political 

 questions, and at this non-political gathering anything 

 savouring of politics must be rigidly excluded. Mr. 

 Merriman has said that there is too much politics in 

 this country; those who belong to no political party 

 will, I think, agree with him. Almost every man and 

 woman in South Africii is a politician, and we send 

 forty-one lawyers 10 Parliament. One of our mem- 

 bers who combines the pastime of ardent sociology 

 with the professional pursuit of science advocates 

 government by function, according to which the only- 

 reason for sending a man or woman to Parliament 

 would be special fitness as an expert on some {Jarticu- 

 lar subject, or as a representative of some particular 

 interest. Political cleavages are not doing this country 

 any good. Let the advice of the Administrator of the 

 Orange Free State be taken in the spirit in which it 

 has been offered. " Last year," he is reported to have 

 said, " the Union imported leather goods to an amount 

 almost equal to that which farmers got for their wool. 

 Whilst they were quarrelling about small matters, they 

 were really forgetting the things that mattered. Each 

 year grain to the value of 1,500,000^. was imported,, 

 although the South .African climate was excellently 

 suited for grain production. When it was dry they 

 prayed for rain, but when the rain came, millions of 

 tons of water were allowed to run to waste to the sea. 

 . . . Europeans were only comparatively few in South 

 .Hrica. Why, then, should they continue quarrelling 

 instead of developing their country?" 



The whole land abounds with examples of neglected 

 opportunities. The Government has repeatedly made 

 the statement that it cannot start industries ; it can 

 only give advice. And when we consider for a moment 

 what has been done through its Agricultural and Lands 

 Departments, unbiased observers must admit that 

 advice has been showered upon the farmer in such 

 profusion that it has come to be a source of irritation 

 to those engaged in other industries, who accuse the 

 agricultural interests of receiving undue preference. 

 Frankly, we must admit that the farmer in many in- 

 stances' has not made the most of his opportunities. 

 The recently issued reports of the Dominions Commis- 

 sion direct attention to the way in which Canada and 

 Australia have been developed into great producing and 

 exporting countries^ — it dwells on the wonderful ex- 

 ternal trade expansion of Canada, which increased 

 190 per cent, between the years 1900 and 1913 — and 

 emphasises the need for greater population, which, of 

 course, means throwing open the land to the new- 

 comer. -As the Member for Stellenbosch has somewhat 

 caustically said, we have " stoep-sitters at one end and 

 poor \vhites at the other, and that state of affairs is 

 not in the interests of the country. . . . Here the 

 farmer waited for an Act of Parliament, and then often 

 kicked at it." No one can object to the Government 

 assisting in every possible way those who are honestlv 

 endeavouring to' increase the productiveness of th^ 

 countrv, and even to assist financially the victims ol 

 misfortune, but the manifestation of a spirit of greater 

 self-reliance and progressiveness on the part of many 

 would be greatly welcome by those who frequently 

 complain that there is too much pandering to the agri- 

 cultural interests. Unwillingness on the part of South 

 Africans, by nativity and adoption, to meet the situa- 

 tion and exert their utmost endeavours in well-directed 

 channels can only lead to the surrendering of their 



