TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L, 623 
may obtain a hearing occasionally, at meetings such as this; a leading article or 
two may be written about their vagaries; but the State has no use for them. 
Nevertheless, we must continue to rattle our drums, hoping that the noise will 
attract in course of time :— 
* The future hides in it 
Gladness and sorrow ; 
We press still thorow, 
Nothing that abides in it 
Daunting us—onward.,’ 
Tarry long we cannot :— 
‘One moment in Annihilation’s Waste, 
One moment of the Well of Life to taste— 
The Stars are setting and the Caravan 
Starts for the Dawn of Nothing—Oh, make haste! ’ 
“God, He knows we need men more and more in the game!’ said the 
Mahbub to Kim. The awful war before us must inevitably prove this to be the 
case, is proving it already; all that I have seen since I came to Australia, to my 
mind, is proof to the same effect. As Prince von Bilow reminds us, ‘ the varied 
life of a nation, ever changing, ever growing more complicated, cannot be 
stretched or squeezed to fit a programme or a political principle.’ The future 
of this Continent must depend on training being given that will educate and 
provide real men, not softlings and town-dwellers merely. 
The following Papers were then read :— 
1. State Aid for Science: A Retrospect. By C. A. BuckmastER. 
An attempt was made to show in what ways and to what extent the State 
has provided funds for the promotion of Science during the past sixty years, 
to trace the variations in amount and manner from year to year, and to see 
what general conclusions, if any, can be drawn from the results. 
The sums voted in the Estimates presented to Parliament were taken as a 
basis, and classified under the two heads of Aid given to Science Instruction and 
Aid given for the promotion of Scientific Research. 
The first of these was again divided into the assistance given to Science 
teaching in connection with Klementary, Secondary, University, and Technical 
Education respectively, 
The part played by the various Government Departments in this distribution 
of public funds was indicated, and the effect of this variety on the results of the 
investigation noted. 
Finally the evidence of increase or decrease both in amount and interest was 
examined and the general results of the inquiry summarised. 
2. Mathematics and Science as Part of a Liberal Education. 
By W. D. Eaaar. 
The methods of teaching the elements of these subjects have been discussed 
almost ad nauseam during the last thirteen years and perhaps longer, the main 
starting-point being the meeting of the British Association in Glasgow in 1901. 
It is not the object of the writer of the paper to question the merits of the 
changes of method either in Mathematics or Science. The immediate cause of 
the changes has been the change in the character of examinations. Hxamina- 
tions, and, in particular, the school-leaving examination, must always determine 
the nature and extent of the school teaching. The accepted view is that a boy 
who has passed this examination has obtained a satisfactory general grounding, 
and is capable of ‘ specialising,’ as it is called, in Mathematics, Science, Classics, 
History, Modern Languages, or, at the University, in Law, or Theology, or 
Metaphysics. 
It is maintained by the writer that the Mathematics required by all these 
