ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 290, 30 April 1913, Page 4

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

At a meeting of the Federal Committee in Melbourne for the Advancement of Science, mention, was made of the fact that New Zealand had granted the sum of £2OOO for the purpose of enabling twenty-five members of the British Scientific Association to extend their projected visit to Melbourne as far as New Zealand. The man in the street is, as a rule, too much taken up with his own endeavors to make both ends meet to bother his head much about science, and, if he thinks of scientists at all, he usually conjures up in liis mind some "seedy old Johnnie" with spectacles and a faded coat, who spends his life in groping about the country after specimens. He is, however, quite unaware that a very large part of modern industrial and commercial life has its foundations in the silent and unseen labors of the investigator. The Association for the Advancement of Science has been sitting periodically in different parts of the Australian States for many years past, and the practical value of its work is being slowly recognised. Some years ago its deliberations were of too technical a nature to interest the lay mind. But the members of the Association are realising that their work must, to be of any permanent value, enter into the national life. Younger •and more enthusiastic men are being attracted by a scientific course, and the whole scope of discussion is being rapidly widened. Many, for instance, will remember the sensational paper read at the last meeting where the question of juvenile morality was treated. Most of the broad questions of economics and sociology, which vitally affect our modern life, are treated in a masterly and comprehensive way, and although probably none of the essayists would succeed in the actual rough-and-tumble of the world's work, yet their trained intellects enable them to deal with fundamentals with which the man with a purely executive mind would be unable to cope. And apart from sociological questions, the laws which lie at the root of such industries as agriculture, in all its departments, engineering, architecture, and so 011, are discussed by those who have found out Nature's principles by laborious experimental work. The sneer that greeted the mere theorist is rapidly disappearing, and both practice and theory now meet on a common ground. It is ' to be hoped that the British scientists will be able to come to the Dominion. Their visit will be productive of nothing but good. New Zealand is an interesting country from a scientific point of view, geologically especially, and, as far as our own province is concerned, it would no doubt be a benefit to us if the , geologists of the party paid a visit to our oil wells. , It is to be hoped that their coming will give a stimulus to scientific study, which is perhaps the most practical, fascinating and elevating pursuit that can be followed.