Otago Institute. 473 



impart vigour to the whole, and render profitable interchange of thought 

 between them more practicable than it would be among isolated bodies all 

 cast in the same rigid and unvarying mould. 



Hitherto the attention of all these societies has been directed principally, 

 but not quite exclusively, to what are called the natural or physical sciences. 

 Of these, undoubtedly geology and her twin sister mineralogy are of the 

 greatest importance to us. New Zealand is especially rich in mineral resources 

 — gold, iron, and other metals, and coal. Unscientific enterprise may develope, 

 and indeed has developed these resources to a considerable extent 3 but they 

 are capable of being rendered available with immeasurably greater rapidity, if 

 energy be directed by scientific knowledge. Now all science is susceptible of 

 two distinct kinds of progress. First, there is the improvement and develop- 

 ment of science itself — the increase of the sum total of scientific knowledge ; 

 and, secondly, the extension of the existing stock of scientific knowledge, be it 

 great or small, among those who may reap practical benefit from ib. 



One of our poets has said — 



'* A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, 

 Drink deep or taste not — ." 



No doubt, full, accurate, and exhaustive knowledge is better than the poet's 

 little knowledge, but practically a little knowledge is better than no know- 

 ledge at all ; and although superficiality is to be avoided, yet the communica- 

 tion of even a little knowledge, if that little be sound in itself, is in the 

 highest degree useful. The miner works with more certainty, and with less 

 risk of failure, if armed with even a small amount of geological and mineralo- 

 gical science, provided that the little which is imparted to him by the man 

 of science be accurate. The farmer, too, without aiming at being a great 

 chemist, is saved from many disappointments by even a " little knowledge " of 

 that department of chemistry which treats of soils and the food of plants. 

 Other industrial pursuits are capable of being similarly aided. I was there- 

 fore not sorry to see that the youngest of our Societies — that of Nelson — 

 makes the promotion of industry one of its objects, coupling it with the 

 promotion of science. If the Transactions be extensively read they cannot 

 fail to promote the second mode of extending science, and the press throughout 

 the country has a useful function to perform by extracting such portions of 

 our Transactions as may be of practical utility to the miner, the farmer, and 

 other developers of the natural resources of the country. 



But the natural or physical sciences do not exhaust what is comprehended 

 in the word science ; and our field seems to me to be of much wider extent. 

 There is a science in every department of human knowledge ; even our manly 

 English sports have their science ; that is, their operations are referred to 

 principles and reduced to rules. Niebuhr has taught us that there is a science 



K 2 



