Presidential Address.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 55, 1924, Unnumbered Page

Presidential Address. The following is the presidential address delivered before the New Zealand Institute on the 29th January, 1924, at Wellington, by Professor H. B. Kirk:— In view of the fact that this meeting is essentially a business meeting, and that it has an immense amount of important work before it, my address must be a brief one, and it will touch only on certain points that seem to me to be of special importance to the Institute at the present time. By the death of Mr. T. F. Cheeseman botanical science has lost one of its most earnest and efficient workers and one of its most capable leaders. At the time of his death he was completing the work of the second edition of the Manual of the New Zealand Flora. The work was practically ready for the press, and it will form a fitting crown to the achievements of a fruitful lifetime. Dr. Cockayne has prepared a note on Cheeseman's life and work, which appears in volume 54 of the Transactions. One of the most distinguished of the honorary members of the Institute died in the early part of last year—Dr. Isaac Bayley Balfour, Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Edinburgh, and formerly Professor of Botany at Oxford and at Glasgow. Dr. Balfour was everywhere recognized as one of the leading botanists of the world, one of the finest and one of the most prolific workers in the field. Among the delegates from Japan at the recent Pan-Pacific Congress was Dr. Fusakichi Omori, President of the Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee of Tokyo, recognized as a first authority on seismology. He returned to Japan seriously ill, and died almost immediately after reaching his home. Although he was not an honorary member of the Institute, it is fitting that we should do honour to his memory, and a resolution will be submitted to you during the course of this meeting. Among prominent members of the Institute that have died during the year were Professor F. D. Brown, Mr. R. Murdoch, and Mr. W. F. Worley. The standing of the Institute in public esteem in New Zealand remains good, although the financial difficulties through which it has been passing have been very great. Especially great has been the strain put on the loyalty of the constituting societies by the necessity to curtail the Transactions) to maintain the levy, and generally to endeavour to discharge our financial liabilities, as well as by the long delay in the appearance of Volume 54 of the Transactions, which delay will presently be referred to. It is not strange that there has been occasional feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of some of the societies, but I do not think that feeling has ever been deep or that it has ever been other than transient. The societies have, on the whole, not failed to recognize that they are the Institute, and that its acts are in reality their own acts through their delegates, better informed than the majority of the members as to the work of the Institute, its needs and its difficulties. The esteem in which the Institute is held would, I believe, be increased if it were to adopt the policy it has once or twice considered of making its annual meeting a scientific as well as a business meeting every second or third year. The success of this plan both at Christchurch and at

Palmerston North gives every encouragement. Such meetings are, without doubt, highly stimulating, and they serve to bring the members of the Institute more in touch with each other, enabling them to realize more fully the greatness of their common aim. At present many members recognize only that they are members of their local society, and fail to realize that they belong to the association of the scientific men of the land. The standing of the Institute abroad continues to improve from year to year, if one may judge from the increasing number of applications from learned societies and scientific libraries to be placed on the exchange list. Something might, I think, be done by the Institute to extend a welcome to the many scientific visitors that come to New Zealand without formal introductions to scientific men here. At present these visitors do not always know how to get in touch with those they would most like to meet. Those that are members of University staffs naturally seek out their coadjutors here, and they are in no difficulty; but many that are not professionally employed in scientific work feel diffident in taking the time of men that they, perhaps flatteringly, regard as busy. Help might be given to these visitors, and received from them, if an inset in the Transactions informed them that application to the office of the Institute, whether personally or in writing, would result in their being placed in communication with the workers they would most like to meet. In this connection, one of the most pressing needs is a suitable building in the city, easily found and likely to be noticed by those that are not looking for it. Such a building would meet also the very urgent need of the Institute for room in which to store its stocks of Transactions and other matters. The long delay in the appearance of Volume 54 of the Transactions has been calculated to damage the prestige of the Institute both at home and abroad. From 1888 onwards the annual volume has been printed at the Government Printing Office and the work has always been done well. It has been understood that the manuscript must be in the printer's hands early in the year, in order that the Institute's work might not clash with the enormous mass of work involved by the parliamentary session, and the early preparation of the manuscript has not been neglected by the Institute's Honorary Editor. For many years the Printing Office got the work of the volume out of hand in good time. Gradually, however, more and more of the other work of the office came to take precedence of the volume, until its issue was pushed late into the year, then into the early part of the following year, and now it happens that the volume containing the papers read in 1921 is only just ready to leave the Printing Office. The effect on the Institute has been exceedingly bad. Many members of the various societies join only because of the value they set on the Transactions scientific papers published in the Transactions are not available to workers in other parts of the world until the volume is distributed, except in so far as the authors' “separates” are issued in advance of the volume: thus the tendency to send important work abroad for publication has increased, and the value of the volume and the prestige of the Institute have suffered. The Board of Governors has several times considered the advisability of again getting the volume printed by a private firm, but has always been faced by the difficulty that, owing to the recent high price of printing, it was in debt to the Government Printer. Now, in the improved circumstances referred to in the report of the Publication Committee, it will be possible to consider the question without the embarrassing feeling that we should be leaving the Government Office while still under a financial obligation to it. If the Board decides that a change ought to

be made, the decision will certainly be come to with regret, seeing how good the general work of the Government Office has been, and particularly how efficient the reading has always been. But the responsibility resting upon the Board to see that the work of the Institute is done with the utmost promptitude may well outweigh this feeling. The Institute has continued, so far as it was able, to keep a watchful eye on matters affecting the preservation of the native fauna and flora. In connection especially with the extension in 1922 of the Tongariro National Park, the members of the Institute took a very active part; and it may be of encouragement in the future to bear in mind that one of the principal factors in determining the inclusion of Hauhangatahi within the park boundary was the fact that a former Minister, the late Hon. Dr. R. McNab, had promised a deputation of the Institute some years ago that it should be so included. It is very desirable that the Institute should obtain all information available as to existing reserves of all kinds—their status as reserves, their sanctuary value, and the dangers to which they are exposed—and that it should have a vigilant committee well versed in this information to initiate from time to time any action that may be necessary. The members of such a committee need not be members of the Board of Governors; but they should be keenly interested in the matter of reserves, and each should make a point of knowing especially the reserves of his own district and the areas that ought to be reserved. It is a noticeable feature that, except for the Carter bequest, the Institute has received no considerable benefaction in aid of its work. The Government made for a short time a research grant by annual vote of Parliament; but this grant was one of the very first items eliminated when retrenchment became necessary. The Hector and Hutton Memorial Funds, and, lately, the Hamilton Memorial Fund, all contributed by members of the Institute, have been applied to the encouragement of research. But it cannot be said that the Institute has ever been in a position to aid and encourage research to the extent that might be expected of a body that includes practically all the scientific workers of New Zealand. Another direction in which the Institute might be expected to take a principal part is the equipment and organizing of scientific expeditions in the Dominion and its dependencies, and, indeed, the Standing Committee recently passed a resolution recognizing the need for this work. Here, again, the lack of funds has constituted an insuperable difficulty. Scientific workers are not as a rule wealthy, or even well-to-do, and, although their private effort has never been wanting, it has been inadequate to enable the Institute to do anything like all the work that it is recognized ought to be done. Until scientific work receives the recognition that is extended to it in more enlightened countries this must always be the case. Even New Zealand began to wake up to the value of scientific work towards the end of the Great War; but it soon dropped off to sleep again. A direction in which the Institute might, through the affiliated societies add to the usefulness of its work is in the popular exposition of scientific subjects. If the Institute were to arrange for selected members to give popular lectures in any centre that was prepared to pay the travelling-expenses of the lecturer, its readiness would, I believe, be taken advantage of, and the arousing of popular interest would be certain to have a beneficial reaction on the Institute itself. In conclusion, I wish to thank the members of the Institute for the hearty support and co-operation they have given me during the time I have had the great honour of being President.