_ SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
Vor. L.] SEPTEMBER, 1919. [No. 5. 
EDITOR'S ia his 
~The columns of this Journal are open to all scientific workers in Australia, 
whether they are or are not directly associated with the work’ of the Institute. 
Neither the Directorate of the. Institute nor the editor takes any responsi- 
bility for views expressed by contributors under their own names. 
Articles intended for publication must be i in the hands of the editor at ete 
one month before publishing date. 
No responsibility can be taken for the return of proffered MSS., though 
every effort will be made to do so where the contribution offered is Pecacied as 
unsuitable. 
Besides articles, letters to the editor and short paragraphs of scientific i interest, 
as well as personal notes regarding scientists, will be acceptable. 
All subscriptions are payable in advance. 
Changes in advertisements must be notified at least fifteen days before 
publishing day. 
Articles may be freely reprinted, provided due acknow)edgmentay is made 
of their source- . 
Cost of the Institute. 
During the course of the Science and Industry Bill through Parlia- 
inent a great deal was heard about cost. Some members seemed to fear 
that a new. Department was being created with unlimited powers of 
spending the public funds. If this were true it would of course be a very 
legitimate ground for complaint. But it is not. The Directors cannot 
spend one penny more of public money than Parliament provides on 
the recommendation of responsible Ministers of the day. Each financial 
year the Institute’s estimates will come under review in Parliament, 
aid Parliament may accept them, reject them in toto, or cut them down 
as it in its wisdom decides. It may be urged that this is insufficient, 
that Parliament may in good faith, and with a laudable desire to see 
Science applied to Industry, appropriate money for this purpose, which 
the Directors miay misuse. Even this is not wholly true, no more true 
than applying to any other Department ‘of State, for the Institute has 
a: Minister at its head, and he is saddled with the usual Ministerial 
responsibility to Parliament, which is the basis of our parliamentary 
system. If this system does not ‘work out entirely satisfactorily in 
practice, or if it does not altogether please some critics, then the system 
should be altered, not a particular application of it criticised. But 
there are other stfeen ards The Directors will not be wholly irre- 
sponsible sa akralict whose chief delight is in disbursing public’ 
moneys upon chimerical ventures in the wide fields of Science. On 
C.12439.—2 204 
