SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: AN EMPIRE APPEAL. 
research and economic exploration, and for consideration of all promising 
schemes, either for new work of this description or for adding to the 
efficiency or widening the scope of work already in progress. 
2. Apart from activities of a primarily scientific nature, such as 
research in oceanography and meteorology, the field to be reviewed may 
be very wide and should not be regarded as entirely economic in 
character. The main portion of the possible field of research may- 
broadly be divided into inquiries relating to sources of mechanical 
power, agriculture and forestry, geology and minerals, and marine 
products. In most of these provinces the desirable inquiries may be 
classified, it is true, without any precise line of demarcation, into 
inquiries directed to an economic or other practical end which is in 
sight from the first, and inquiries where the practical aim, though real, 
is less immediately obvious. I am decidedly of opinion that the latter 
class of inquiries ought by no means to be neglected, and that if they 
are well chosen it may be expected that in the long run they will be even 
more fruitful in results of practical value than inquiries of the former 
class. The latter class of inquiry, however, demands a scientific staff 
with higher qualifications, and can scarcely be attacked effectually by 
a small Colony acting by itself. In such cases possible combination 
with other Colonies similarly situated should be considered. 
3. It is becoming more and more clear that there is scarcely any 
industry which can develop or even maintain its position without the 
aid of scientific research, and that it is sound policy that such research 
should be liberally provided for in the budgets of the firms engaged,. 
although it is frequently necessary that those firms should combine to 
finance a central research association, or at least closely co-operate in 
research work in order to cover the whole ground and avoid overlapping. 
With some assistance from the Imperial Treasury a good deal is being 
done in this country on these voluntary lines. ‘There will no doubt be 
certain Colonial firms who can best participate by contributing to the 
research associations of their industries in this country. But the usual 
method in the Colonies is for research to be carried on by the scientific 
departments of the Government, and financed out of the ordinary revenue 
and out of taxes on particular industries, while a subsidiary but im- 
portant method is that of contribution to institutions for research and 
the like, usually situated for convenience in this country, some official, 
such as the Bureau of Entomology and the new Bureau of Mycology, 
and some unofficial, such as the research associations referred to above, 
which are organized under the auspices of the Department of Scientific 
and Industrial Research. 
4, Broadly, I would ask you to consider the position of any important 
industries in the Colony on whose behalf no research work is at present 
carried on, and whether this state of affairs does not call for action on 
the part of the Colonial Government. I would particularly direct your 
attention to those raw materials required for Imperial trade or defence 
which are produced within the Empire either in inadequate quantities 
or not at all, such as flax, hemp, medium stapled cotton, the lighter 
timbers, ores of aluminium. and copper, phosphate rock, potash dnd. 
mineral oil. The question of the possible establishment or extension of 
fishing industries for export is also worth attention. 
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