ROYAL SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1937, Page 10

ROYAL SOCIETY

"HARDLY KNOWN"

PRESIDENT'S OPINION

"I may have been unfortunate in the rumours which have, reached me, but if they are well founded, it would appear that interest in the Royal Society is waning'," said Bishop H. W. Williams, in his presidential address at today's annual meeting of the council of the Royal Society of New Zealand. "Another indication that this is so," he added, "is the fact that beyond its own members the society is hardly known. I draw this conclusion from the nature of the publicity given to its doings in the Press. "We are charged by the Act under which we exist with the duty of proy moting science. lam not satisfied that we are doing so with sufficient vigour and success to keep us in the forefront of such an enterprise. The means at our—that is, the council's— disposal suggested in the Act is the arranging of public meetings for the reading of papers and delivery of lectures. This we leave practically to the member bodies, some of which find the task a heavy one. "It is possible that the fault may be in the listeners and that they require educating in the taste for a richer intellectual fare. Such education may fairly be regarded as the promotion of science and, as such, will fall within the scope of the activities assigned to us by our controlling Act. This consideration makes it arguable that it is our duty to foster lectures and papers of a popular character, provided only that they deal with some subject which may be included in the definition of science. And this creation of interest in those who are not otherwise scientifically minded is a vital matter for the society; for, while the Act empowers us to exist, we can only do so by the continued good will of those who are sufficiently interested in science to join our member bodies."

Bishop Williams concluded by saying that he had stated the problem, but regretted that.he had no solution to offer. It might be possible, he thought, for the council, through the standing committee, to set up an advisory committee to assist member bodies, particularly the weaker ones, in providing lecturers or readers of papers, and of co-ordinating the steps they are taking in promoting research. He had. however, no definite plan and left the solution to his successor, to whom he wished all success.