The Daily News. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1915. THE INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON PROGRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 222, 26 February 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1915. THE INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON PROGRESS.

It is rarely that writers of general history turn aside from the beaten track of law and politics when discussing the important question of a nation's progress. Legislation undoubtedly plays its part in accelerating or retarding national progress, but if the thinking man, who studies all the component parts that go to make up the real and actual leverage which impels a forward move in national affairs were asked to give an honest opinion as to what has been the most striking feature in the intellectual development of the last century, he could but reply that it was the growth-of science and its applications, especially on the mechanical side. Nothing has emphasised this contention more surely than the present war, and it may be that the one outstanding result of the greatest war since the time of tlie Roman Empire will be the attainment of those ideals of underlying unity, interest and culture which should be the ultimate end of nations. The common forces are permanent and must grow and thereby subdue the disruptive, passions of envy, suspicion and distrust. This is the fundamental truth of the process of human evolution, for man is born for ultimate unity, and all real progress consists in an approach thereto. Sociology is a science, and has its laws. There has been for the last two hundred years inlinilely more science, more service to mankind more internationalisation in engineering than in diplomacy. y?t it is customary to ignore the inlluence of science and to belaud the services of diplomatist's and politicians. We, in New Zealand, are only too prone to point to our progressive legislation as a reason for the proud position the Dominion enjoys to-day. and. as the prime factor in its prosperity, and politicians never weary of claiming th ' credit for that phenomenal success which the primary industries have achieved. Tint what do we find to be the real lever which has effected this wonderful result? Science. The engine.TS, the chemists, the inventors and the harnessing of the marvellous powers of Nature to the use of man, individually and collectively, have evolved scion

tific apparatus for freezing meat and' butter, for perfecting the output of our dairies, and placing our produce on markets distant many thousands of miles away by means of rapid .transit in ships ! containing the scientific apparatus fbir preserving the produce in a perfect condition: The realisation of the growth of the- common factors in humanity demands 'recognition. That this growth is real—has taken place and will continue—is, says a 1 writer in The Hibbert Journal, as demonstrable •as any other fact in the world of life and things. That we may delay and obstruct it is equally patent, when men deliberately ispcral life and wealth in manufacturing ; hatred and means of destruction against joHiwr men. W e shall see that beneath I the turmoil of conflict, the outbreaks of I jealousy, and the just certainty of heavy | retribution, flicre are forces still at | work, stronger than: ever in: fke world, | and a clever texture of international unitfy in science, commerce, and the acts of life which may be tarn but cannot be destroyed; Setenea will grow and fellowship will spread. A great war cannot permanently or even long delay tlio onward - march, of progress, any more than can the loss of one or two great ocean liners seriously check communication and transport. The achievements of man in the past against the odds of a hostile nature or perverted !-;iman will are but an index of what can be done in the future. Man has conquered the land, the sea, the air and many other forces by the aid of science, and as' yet he is only at the threshold of knowledge as revealed by the students of the past. The sphere of research is illimitable, and each discovery tends to the ultimate triumph of progress and the cause of unity.