240 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
resources and fisheries, we must increase production, and we must decrease 
our imports by manufacturing ourselves many things which now we import 
from overseas. We must have more population, and the best we can obtain 
is from our own sturdy people. The shrinking birth-rate represents 
a social, an ethical, and a scientific problem that must be faced. The 
Government Statistician reported to me some time ago that had the natural 
increase rate of 1882-86 (24*56 per 1,000 of mean population) been main¬ 
tained to the end of 1915 it would have meant an approximate increase 
of 240,000 persons over the population at 31st December, 1915. We must 
develop our latent mineral resources of coal, iron, mineral oil, and other 
undeveloped wealth. We must develop our fisheries in order to secure the 
harvest of the sea for the nutriment of our population with phosphatic 
food as an alternative to high-priced meat food, and in order to provide 
employment for a race of fishermen whose services would be available for 
naval defence. We must increase production by making three blades of 
grass grow where one is growing now, and, above all, by learning how to 
farm successfully the vast areas of land now unoccupied, but which, I am 
satisfied, fuller knowledge and wider experience will make reproductive 
and useful. We must decrease our imports by establishing secondary 
industries which will keep in the country money now being sent away, 
and thus provide employment for our present and future population. 
Down to 1911 the rural population exceeded that in the towns and 
boroughs, but the census of 1916 showed that 53*24 per cent, of the 
population resided in the municipalities, and if the town districts and 
suburban county areas were included I am of opinion that 60 per cent, 
would be a correct estimate. The employment of our city and borough 
populations is a problem we must face. Much is being done to assist our 
industries by the development of the hydro-electric resources of the 
Dominion. In them we have a huge undeveloped asset, and they will do 
for the secondary industries what the railways have done for the primary 
products. I regard the immediate development of our hydro-electric 
resources as the most clamant need of the Dominion. But above and 
beyond all the material things I have stated, we must have a healthy and 
educated population. Not one of the things I have suggested is to be 
regarded as a dream, a vision, or even an ideal. They are all practicable, 
and can be attained with effort directed by science and assisted bv money. 
Governments are not scientific bodies, but they control the finance, and 
in the various Departments of State there is an able body of men who, 
if linked up with the scientific men and associations outside the Depart¬ 
ments, can be of great service in developing the Dominion. What I ask 
for is the co-ordination of public and private scientific knowledge. During 
the last few years a little—a very little—has been accomplished in this 
direction. Instead of science being a side-show, it must be made one of 
the main objects and purposes of national life and organization. Our 
Geological Department should go over the country and wrest from nature 
its mineral wealth—not by prospecting-parties of untrained gold-seekers, 
but by scientific mineralogists who know every stone and can follow up 
and explore every indication they see. The laboratories connected with 
the four University colleges should be enlarged and strengthened in equip¬ 
ment and staff, so that every problem of industry can be tackled and 
solved. Our agricultural colleges should be multiplied and expanded, and 
have special laboratories and testing-stations, that our seeds and fertilizers 
and methods may be improved and adapted to the varying soils of the 
Dominion. 
