SCIENCE AND ART BILL.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14762, 4 September 1913, Page 8

SCIENCE AND ART BILL.

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE'S

OBJECTIONS

At the beginning of the meeting of the Canterbury Philosophical Institute last night, the chairman (Dr. Chilton) made reference to tho Science and Art Bill recently introduced in Parliament.

Dr. Chilton said that the Bill was of very groat importance to the Institute. It proposed to set up a board to control the Dominion Aluseum, the Art Gallery to be established in connection therewith, and also with the publication of the "Transactions"'of the Institute. It was in this last mentioned respect that the Bill affected the Canterbury Institute. Under present conditions tho affairs of the New Zealand 'Institute (which consisted of a large number of branches throughout the Dominion—voluntary associations) and the publication of the "Transactions" were in the nands of a Board of Governors, the members of which were elected by the different societies, with tho exception of lour nominated by .the Government. He quoted from the Bill the constitution of the new board, and pointed out that out of the eight members comprising it all of them were to bo either Government officials or members appointed by the Government with the exception of ono—the president of the New Zealand Philosophical Institute. The final selection of the papers to be printed in tho "Transactions" was to rest entirely with this board, instead of, as at present, being selected by a Board of Governors and by editors appointed by the members of the Institute, and who, of course, could be removed by a vote of the members. At present the "Transactions" was given without additional charge to all members of the Institute, and the Bill proposed that tho "Transactions" were to be sold at prices fixed by regulation, with the provision that a concession may bo made to members of the Institute. It appeared that members would be called upon to pay if they wished to have a copy of the "Transactions." The Council of the Canterbury Institute had met and considered the Bill, and it was unanimously of opinion that tho points he had referred to would bo prejudicial to the real interests of the IKcw Zealand Institute. Under direction from that meeting, he had written tho following letter to the Alinister in charge of the Bill, and it was proposed to forward copies to members of Parliament:—

"Tho members of the Council of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, having carefully considered the provisions of the Science and Art Bill, regret that they are compelled to oppose most strongly the clauses dealing with the 'Transactions' of the New Zealand Institute, for the following reasons:—

"(1) The New Zealand Institute is a voluntary association of about 1000 members belonging to the local scientific societies; scientific papers, many of them of great importance in connection with the resources of New Zealand, are prepared gratuitously by these members, and these papers are examined and where necessary revised and thereafter selected and edited hy a committee of scientific • men elected, directly or indirectly, by the members of the Institute as being best fitted for the work, and the whole of this is done without expense, the only cost being that of printing the "Transactions' of the New Zealand Institute in the Government Printing Office. The proposal to entrust the final selection of the papers that are to be printed in the 'Transactions' to a board almost entirely composed of Government officials, in the selection of whom the members of the Institute have no voice, would remove all incentive to scientific research, and no editorial committee would give 'its services gratuitously under such conditions. '

"(2) At present a copy of the "Transactions 'of the New Zealand Institute is given without additional charge to all members of the Institute, and forms the chief inducement for membership. If members have to purchase the volume, as proposed by the Bill, in addition to paying their subscriptions to the local society, the number of the members of the Institute will inevitably bo greatly reduced, and the number of volumes issued would soon be so small that thero would no longer be sufficient inducement to 'scientrSc men to publish their works in the 'Transactions' of the New Zealand Institute; consequently the fcientific value of the 'Transactions' would be seriously impaired and it would no longer be possible to obtain in exchange the valuable periodicals from other learned societies for the Institute library.

"The proposal to charge for the 'Transactions' would seriously react on the local societies and cripple their reresources, scanty enough at present, particularly in the direction of reducing the funds available for their libraries, and would thus seriously retard the larsre amount of good work they are doing in spreading a knowledge of fic'ence and in promoting research in New Zaland." This letter, the Chairman continued, the Council thought expressed some of its objections to the measure. It was only duo to the members of the Institute to know that the Council was on the watch and was doing what' it could. As President of the New Zealand Institute he had summoned a meeting of the Board of Governors for Friday, at which the matter would be further dealt with.