1919.J 
New Zealand Institute Science Congress. 
249 
in research—most of them New Zealand born—are fully competent to 
undertake almost any scientific investigation. To one like myself, growing 
old, it is a joy to see how many capable young men belonging to our 
Institute have come to the front of recent years. 
Before dealing specifically with certain branches of research which I 
think might well be undertaken by members of the Institute, or others 
in this country who ought to be members, I must say something regarding 
the separation of science into the two classes, “ pure ” and “ applied,” as 
they are called, the,former at best merely tolerated by the public, who value 
a scientific discovery only if it has an evident practical bearing. This 
state of mind would certainly kill all advance. If carried out for a suffi¬ 
cient time throughout the world civilization would not merely remain at a 
standstill, but deterioration would rapidly set in. The purely scientific 
must come first, and the practical, without any special coddling by the 
State, will assuredly follow. The cure of an infectious disease is only the 
last link—fcr the time being—in a long chain of researches nine-tenths of 
which were purely academic, but each leading slowly but surely to the 
final result. And this great wealth of research—apparently medical—was 
the work of the biologist, the chemist, and the physicist. The electric 
tram, the frozen lamb, the marconigram, the spraying of an apple-tree, the 
moving picture, the field of turnips—all these and far more of our every¬ 
day life are but the final—again I say, “ for the time being ”—practical 
application of exact knowledge painfully acquired by enthusiasts such as 
Michael Faraday—the mighty, the maker of history—with his £100 a year, 
a room or two to live in, and coals and candles ! “ Faraday’s early investi¬ 
gations on the chemical aspects of electrolysis," wrote in March, 1918, 
Professor Pope, President of the Chemical Society, “ and his studies on 
magnetic induction, led immediately to the invention of the dynamo, and, 
through Clerk Maxwell, to the introduction of wireless telegraphy. This 
one branch of Faraday’s investigations, in point of fact, constitutes the 
groundwork of the whole stupendous vista of results of the general intro¬ 
duction of the electric current into modern life which is so familiar to 
us all. Cavendish’s early production of nitric acid by the passage of an 
electric spark through the air, reproduced on an enormously large scale, 
is now furnishing Central Europe with the nitric acid without which no 
explosives could be manufactured.” The Faradays of the present day, 
instead of being able to devote all their time to research, in order to get 
their daily bread are forced to waste their time as teachers. For this fair 
wages are available ; for the prosecution of pure science there is usually 
nothing, unless temporarily, and that for inexperienced young men. 
On this matter of pure and applied science let me quote a resolution of 
the Inter-Allied Conference on International Scientific Organizations held 
by the Royal Society during October, 1918. Thus the resolution runs : 
” The Conference, being of opinion that all industrial, agricultural, and 
medical progress depends on pure science, draws attention of the various 
Governments to the importance of theoretical and disinterested researches, 
which after the restoration of peace should be supported by large endow¬ 
ments. The Conference urges similarly the creation of large laboratories 
for experimental science, both private and national.” 
New Zealand is above all else a farming community. Many of Nature’s 
secrets of a hundred years ago are now the priceless possessions of man. 
. These when more generally applied than at present will make our fields 
yield a much greater return. This would be a great advance, but without 
the discovery of further fundamental principles, now unknown, agriculture 
