ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 3& 



past has accumulated for us ? If the answer to these questions be 

 yes — and who with any patriotic feeling, or sense of his duty to 

 the country in which he is nurtured, or in which he lives and 

 moves and has his being can answer otherwise — then we shall 

 have to fitly take our part in the general progress ; we shall have 

 to do what lies in our power to make, to the ever-increasing body 

 of knowledge, such contributions as shall worthily express our 

 appreciation* of the inheritance, that by the labour of others is 

 ours. If a people attempt to thrive on the intellectual, industrial 

 or economic activity of others, they will fall into their proper 

 place as parasites. The only path of progress is self-help, and the 

 only way to hold our own with the great centres of activity, is to 

 foster all that tends to engender noble aspirations after those 

 things which have made other nations great, and their histories a 

 stimulus to high effort. The race may not be to the swift, but it 

 is to the people of strong purpose; and the giant strides made 

 through the progress of science, warn us not to be supine, lest we 

 be left hopelessly in the rear. The time for action is now. 



What are the conditions under which it will be possible to 

 advance ? We have already indicated that on the spiritual side 

 it is determined by our character, by a high appreciation of the 

 dignity of intellectual effort and intellectual achievement, and an 

 earnest purpose to take our part in the higher progress of the 

 world. On the material side, we must make the opportunity for 

 the student to work, and give him all the advantages which 

 accrue from instant acquaintance with everything that is being 

 done in other parts of the world. The laboratories of our land 

 must be so arranged as to facilitate research, and efficiently placed 

 at the disposal of students willing to devote themselves. Mere 

 teaching of the acquisitions of the past is not sufficient ; to be of 

 value they must be the seed of further progress. And here I may 

 be allowed to ask whether we are adequately utilizing our oppor- 

 tunity in the laboratories of government departments. Properly 

 equipped, what facilities they would offer for true research work 

 — the life-blood of scientific progress — provided their able chiefs 



