WHAT SCIENCE HAS DONE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 254, 17 January 1928, Page 9

WHAT SCIENCE HAS DONE

HELPING INDUSTRY CONGRESS OPENS AT HOBART ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT By Cable. —-Press Association. — -Copyright. HOBART, Monday. The 19th congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science was opened at Hobart to-day. Delegates were present from all the Australian States and New Zealand. In his presidential address, Mr. R. H. Cambage, of Sydney, referred to the great need for the further application of science to primary production. This, he said, embraced such fundamental utilities as the production of grain, fruit, butter, wool and meat, and he stated that it was a matter for satisfaction that the Commonwealth and State Governments, as well as private bodies, were showing increased appreciation of the value of science to these problems. He mentioned that a few years ago a thorough knowledge of dairy bacteriology and its application to the production of butter had resulted in increasing the output of first-grade butter in New South Wales from 48 to 96 per cent. Referring to wheat he said: “It is difficult to find anything among the primary products of Australia which owes more to science than wheat production. This is a matter of national concern, and it is most comforting to know that the great pioneering work carried out by William James Farrer is being continued at departmental experiment farms and universities, and with most progressive results.

New and better drought and rustresisting varieties of wheat and other grain are being produced, and experiments are being made for the purpose of breeding rust and flag-smut-resisting plants which will also have other good characters. Mr. Cambage referred to the action of the pastoralists in arranging for the Australian Pastoral Research Trust to receive a contribution at the rate of 2s a bale of the 1927 wool clip, with the hope of raising £200,000 for scientific research in connection with the industry. This action he regards as a most definte advance in Australia in the recognition of the benefits of science. ACTION COMMENDED

He commended the recent action of the Federal Government in inviting five leading pastoralists to act as a committee to inquire into the conditions of the pastoral industry in Australia, and advise on the best methods of conserving the- national wealth represented by the industry. “It provides further evidence,” he said, "that the authorities concerned are quite alive to the desirability of abandoning the old happy-go-lucky methods of trusting to cnance in regard to seasons, and rather to look for the introduction of some reasonable scheme of insurance that may have for its object the avoidance of excessive losses rather than the making of large profits in good years only.” Mr. Cambage concluded the first portion of. his address by saying that it was the desire of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, which includes New Zealand, to inspire and stimulate a science sense in the public mind, and that, he thought, could best be done by demonstrating how the principles of pure science might be applied successfully to familiar economic problems. —A. and N.Z.