PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS, ae 
is that the student in the natural sciences has at present usually 
but very little prospect of any great pecuniary success in life, 
in spite of their having been termed the “bread and butter” 
sciences, 
The openings are but few, and usually not well paid. The 
necessity of having well-trained scientific managers to mines, 
metallurgical works, and manufactories, is hardly yet recognized 
—and certainly this is the case in the Colonies. 
In many cases it would pay companies to have a Manager well 
trained in scientific principles, at the rate of even £3,000 or 
£4,000 a year, instead of a more or less incompetent one at a 
small salary, as is too often the case; the thoroughly trained man 
would often make the difference between failure and success. 
The Board of Technical Education is now doing good work in 
spreading elementary, scientific, and technical education over the 
Colony, by means of science classes in Sydney and at various 
centres outside of Sydney, and in a less systematic manner by the 
did of itinerant lectures. The latter are sent out mainly to draw 
attention to the fact that there are educational subjects other than 
the ordinary school courses, and to help to create a taste for such. 
Many people who are considered fairly well educated are quite 
ignorant of such matters, and lie under the impression that the 
subject of physics deals with drugs, and the subject of chemistry 
with the art of compounding and dispensing the same, so that if 
they are only taught that physics deals with the forces of nature 
some good has been done ; for of course we cannot expect much 
to be learnt from an attendance upon one or two more or less 
popular lectures; it is more or less true, as has been said by 
Faraday, “popular lectures do not really teach, and lectures which 
really teach are not popular.” 
It is gratifying to find that the necessity of scientific education 
is gradually being realized in other quarters ; and it is satisfactory 
to notice that at the present time there is a motion before the 
Legislative Assembly to place the sum of £10,000 upon the Esti- 
mates for the establishment of Schools of Mines in the various 
F . 
