SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
expert, or even to an inside investigator, installed in a laboratory, not familial 
with the technical details of the plant. No doubt some help may be gained i” 
this way; no doubt a measure of safety regarding plant secrets is also gaine™ 
But there is a fundamental error in the method, namely, the assumption that * 
problem can be recognised and properly and completely stated by any one but th! 
man capable of solving it. The chemist must demand to know all that is alread) 
known, otherwise he starts handicapped. Put quite bluntly, the manufacture 
must show his hand completely to the chemist from whom he hopes for assist 
ance; and this involves a relationship of a very confidential nature. 
This particular point cannot now be more fully dealt with: but in connexio™ 
with the Institute of Science and Industry it is of fundamental importance so fat 
as the chemical side is concerned, and it must be given full and final consider 
tion as soon as possible. It is presumably the Government’s intention that; im 
the matter of chemistry, this Institute shall be of use to various private indus 
tries, either in being or about to be initiated, in the prosperity of which the 
country is deeply concerned. For the officers of the Institute to be of service © 
manufacturers, it is necessary that some of them be entirely in the confidence of 
the manufacturer. On the other hand, no manufacturer wishes to give an outside! 
the confidential technical details upon which his process is based; and his diff 
dence will be all the greater when the. outsider is one who may have equally co” 
fidential relations with other manufacturers. This is a problem that has to } 
faced if disappointment is to be avoided, and the first essential is to state it 1” 
all its difficulty. There is reason to believe that it is not beyond solution. It hé? 
not proved to be insoluble in America. But if it does prove beyond solution here 
it will be necessary to recognise quite candidly that one side of the Institute® 
activities upon which the Government counts is closed. 
Assuming, however, a solution for this primary difficulty, there remains befol 
the Institute the big question of finding suitable men for the work which it will 
undertake. That chemical industries must and will flourish in Australia is as 
certain as that they are going to flourish to an extent hitherto undreamt of ™ 
America and Great Britain, on the Continent, in Japan, and in the othet 
Dominions. These countries will produce their own chemists. No doubt they will 
also be able to produce those that Australia requires; but it will be a most 
unfortunate confession of failure if we cannot fill our own technical posts with 
our own men. Therefore, the matters of their training and their profession@l 
status cannot too soon be settled, and the proposed Institute is most intimatelf | 
concerned with them. All the organization that is possible will be ineffectiv® 
unless the necessary men and women with adequate training are available to study | 
the problems that will arise. It will naturally be one of the Institute’s co!” 
tinuous aims to secure the best possible skill for its investigations, and it must 
look, not merely to the educational institutions of the country, but to the initia 
tive and enterprise of the young graduate in science for the heavy preparatio? 
that will be necessary before success in original inquiry is assured. 
Much has been promised on behalf of chemical science; when the opportunity | 
comes it will take all the energy and enthusiasm of our chemists to redeem t)® 
promises and to make for themselves in the national life a place worthy of thei! 
science, : : 
44 
