owe to him, too, a large monetary gift for a new Hospital, and the 

 Cawthron Park. And, as you are aware, Mr Cawthron had con- 

 templated several other improvements, which unfortunately had 

 to be left unfulfilled owing to his death in 1915. 



Nelson is indeed fortunate in having had as a citizen a man who 

 used his wealth to such good purpose and with such large ideals, for 

 many men who have accumulated a fortune by business in the 

 Dominion retire to Great Britain and spend it there, instead of return- 

 ing the money in the form of benefactions to the people from whom 

 and amongst whom they have derived it. All praise is due, and all 

 honour, to the late Mr Thomas Cawthron, both for what he did and 

 for what he proposed to do for this city. 



These varied benefactions and improvements are sufficient to render 

 Mr Cawthron's name memorable in Nelson city and provincial dis- 

 trict ; but in the Cawthron Besearch Institute there will be a monu- 

 ment to him that will bring his name constantly before scientific 

 agriculturists all the world over. We hope that in time when the 

 Institute is established it will become the home of important 

 discoveries in aid of agriculture, and especially of orchardry. If 

 the ideals of the Commission, which the Trustees selected to advise 

 them in the matter,, are carried out, we may look forward to the time 

 when the Cawthron Institute will take rank with the older establish- 

 ments like the Rothamsted Experimental Farm in England, and with 

 many American institutes for research ; that it will become the centre 

 of research in New Zealand, and will ultimately attract to it men of 

 science from all parts of the Dominion and from Australia, and even 

 in the years to come from further afield. That will, however, not 

 be for many years ; the Institute has yet to be organised, to be 

 provided with a staff, who will have to feel their way amongst 

 many and difficult problems. 



What I particularly want to impress upon you is that research is 

 not a matter of a month or two, nor of a year; in order that it may 

 yield results of permanent value the whole scheme for research must 

 be most carefully planned and patiently carried on by efficient and 

 scientifically trained men. In the first Cawthron Lecture, "On the 

 Aims and Ideals of the Cawthron Institute," Professor Easterfield 

 set out fully the benefits that research would confer not only upon this 

 district, but on the Dominion. 



So far as I can gather from the press report of that lecture, Pro- 

 fessor Easterfield dealt in general terms with the valuable results 

 that have accrued from the application of science, especially of 

 chemistry, to industry, and I propose to-night to deal with a 

 restricted field and attempt to interest you in an account of some 

 little fragments of help that research in biology has conferred on 

 certain agricultural problems. 



I find that I must confine myself to a very limited field, and shall 

 discuss mainly the organisms which by their activity serve to enrich 

 the soil and make it suitable for the growth of plants, and later will 

 refer to the subject of diseases which attack fruit tree*! 



