PESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 41 
purpose alone, as it can hardly be expected that such work 
can proceed with the desired rapidity, or be altogether 
satisfactory, while the results are dependent upon the 
efforts of scientific officers whose time is so largely occupied 
with routine duties. As the results of this work would be 
of general value to Australia it seems fitting that the 
Federal authorities should provide the main portion of the 
funds necessary to carry on such important researches. 
The Governments of some of the Australian States are— 
by the establishment of scholarships and in other ways— 
.already providing money for the furtherance of research. 
The New South Wales Government in particular has been 
liberal in this respect, and has provided money for this 
purpose to be expended at the University and in other 
directions. But generous as this act may be considered, 
yet the amount is not sufficient to enable extensive inves- 
tigations of a national character to be successfully carried 
out. 
One might express a wish that the time is not far distant 
when those in authority will recognise the advisability of 
spending money unstintingly to further scientific investi- 
gations into the latent possibilities of the unique vegetable 
resources of this Continent, as well as for researches in 
other directions. It is hardly possible that too much money 
can be judiciously spent on researches of this nature, for 
without doubt, such expenditure would be eventually 
recouped many times over. 
The establishment of Chairs in Organic Chemistry and 
Botany at the Sydney University, together with the 
increasing activity in the Organic Chemistry Classes at the 
Technical College, as well as similar advances made in the 
other States, will be the means of supplying the trained 
material from which that band of scientific workers may 
be recruited; men who by thought and sentiment will be 
