PRESIDENTIAL ADDttESS. 1$ 



simple, and has all tlie good and bad traits of a business. 

 In the past it has not understood the value of science. In 

 the future we hope for much. The war should have shown 

 our Government heads the value of science, for it is by 

 scientific methods and with the products of science, that 

 we hope to emerge successfully from the present contest. 

 The guns we use are scientific instruments, shells are made 

 in a scientific manner and filled with scientifically prepared 

 chemicals, and everything connected with the gun is so 

 scientifically accurate that the shell can fall a few yards 

 in front of our advanced trenches. Our aeroplanes are 

 scientific inventions fitted with scientific appliances. The 

 same with our ships of war, and our submarines with their 

 devastating torpedoes. The use of gas and the life saving 

 mask are applications of science. Surely with all this 

 demonstration of science before us at the present time, the 

 Government and the people must realise the value of 

 science. They are backing science to win, and if it does 

 win, are they going to ignore the winner? I cannot think 

 that they will. 



It is curious that although the utilisation of science has 

 been so extensively made within the past two years, the 

 British Government suggested that the British Universities 

 should not fill any unoccupied chairs till after the war, and 

 that some institutions and departments should be closed so 

 that the staffs might seek employment elsewhere, and 

 relieve the institutions of the payment of their salaries. 

 And at the same time while the ink was still wet upon 

 this note, it actually appointed three new judges each with 

 a salary of £5,000, and a secretaryship to a Lord Chancellor 

 with a stipend of £2,000. 



I should like to ask what has law done to enable us to 

 win this greatest war in history upon which our freedom 

 depends? Yet our legal appointments are more highly 



