SCIENCE CONGRESS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 89, 11 January 1923, Page 5

SCIENCE CONGRESS

AUSTRALIAN DELEGATES ARRIVE

CIVIC RECEPTION TO-DAY

About ono hundred.of the Australian ■delegates to the congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science arrived yesterday afternoon by the Ulimaroa, many of them accompanied by their wives and children.

Among yesterday’s arrivals wore the president-elect, Mr. G. 11. Knibbs, who was for many years Commonwealth (Statistician, Sir Douglas Afawson, the Antarctic explorer, Sir Baldwin Spencer, Professors Richards, Skeats, Grif-:fith-Taylor, and Warren. A civio reception will be tendered 'the delegates at the Town Hall at noon to-day, and at 2 p.m. the council of the association will meet. At 3.30 the delegates will be entertained to tea at the Kelburn Kiosk and Botanical Gardens The president-elect will deliver his presidential address at Iho Town Hall at 8 o’clock this evening. The citizens are cordially invited to this and succeeding public lectures, which will be held Tho following list of the sections of tho association will give some idea of the wide scope of the subjects dealt with. The name of the president of each section is also given:—

'A.—Astronomy, mathematics, and phvsics: Captain E. Kidson, ’0.8.k, Al. Sc. B. Chemistry, H. G. Smith, F.C.S.; sub-section pharmacy, R. C. Cowley. , T C. Geology and mineralogy: L. Keith Ward. 8.A., B.E. D. Biology: Professor T. Harvey Johnston, AI.A., D.Sc. E. Geography and history: Professor G. Taylor, D.Sc. F. —Ethnology and anthropology: Captain G. Pitt-Rivers. . < G. Social and statistical science: C. 11. Wickens, A.1.A., F.S.S. H. —Engineering and architecture: Professor W. H. Warren, A1.1.C.E. I. —Sanitary science and hygiene: Dr. Harvey Sutton, 0.8. E. J. science and education: J. A. Johnson, M.A. K. —Agriculture: A. E. V. Richardson, ALA., B.Sc. . L. —Veterinary science : Professor H. A. Woodruff, M.R.C.V.S. ' PLEASURE EXCURSIONS. Those of the visiting scientists who wish to sec Wainui-o-Mata will have an opportunity of doing so on Saturday, when cars will leave the Government Buildings at 2 p.m., and return to town a-t 6. Those who prefer to make a harbour excursion, will be invited to do so. The City Council has offered to run an observation car for the use of members erf the association on three or four mornings during the meeting. Other pleasure excursions will be arranged. Mr. IV. H. Field, ALP., will entertain a number of the visitors at lunch at Waikanae on Sunday. SIXTEENTH MEETING MODERN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Nearly twenty years have passed since the Scientific Congress held its sittings in New Zealand, and during eight years of that period, through the intervention of war, no meetings of any kind were held. To-day’s

meeting will bo the third of its kind held in the Dominion. The association was organised in the year of Queen Victoria’s jubilee, and held its first meeting in Sydney, where over ' 800 scientists attended the sessions.' Tim new body was an off-shoot of the British Association, which was founded in 1832, ‘‘to give a stronger .impulse and a more systematic direction to scientific inquiry, to promote tho intercourse of those who cultivate science in the different parts of the British Empire with one another, and to obtain, a greater degree of national attention” to the objects of science.” Fourteen years after, the formation of the British body, the greatest of American scientific research bodies, the Smithsonian Institution, was creatI ed by Act of Congress, according to the will of James Smithson,, a distinguished English chemist. and natural son of the first Duke of Northumberland. who bequeathed his property to the United States, to “found at Washington an establishment’ for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” The dimensions of this bodv mav be appreciated from the fact that it issued last year 113 volumes and pamphlets dealing with almost every branch of science. At the head of the present congress is a distinguished economist and statistician, Mr; G. H. Knibbs, who, at the inauguration of the Commonwealth in 1901, was promoted from the directorate of technical instruction in the Mother State to be the first Commonwealth Statistician. Mr. Knibbs’s work in the Federal sphere of statistics supplemented the investigations of Sir Timothy Coghlan, and broke much new ground, more notably in the ’ direc+ion of important discussions, published transact’ons and carefully collected data concerning chiefly the cfonomic and industrial development of the six States of Australia. Economic science has developed very vigorously under his guidance, and scientists in Anstral'.a and New Zealand rejoiced when, it became known last year that Mr.'Knibbs was appointed Director of the Commonwealth Bureau of Science and Industry. One cannot converse with the newlyarrived delegates without being impressed with the fact that a great deal remains to be done before the commercial and industrial world is fully convinced of the pmlue it may gain to its" activity from the assistance of applied’ and theoretical science. The community generally does not endow scientific research in anything like its ratio of importance to the general welfare. “High finance.” says one visitor, "has always had the spirit of adventure about it. Tims, it has employed explorers at salaries beypnd the widest dreams of professors, and has given syndicates funds that would endow laboratories in perpetuity. Why is it less ready to endow scientific research? Tim scientific unit is an international republic. a commune, in the finest sense of the word, in which each member works for the common goal and not for tho pecuniary reward for his services.” Finance is not the only problem of scientific research, sajsl another. Many of tho most brilliant of young university men that were trained to research work have been lured away to industry and commerce. * The supply of investigators threatens to form an insufficient basis for the future of science in many countries, notably France. Economic stress explains but docs not justify this state of affairs. The material reward of those able and willing to devote their lives to scientific investigation should bo increased. It is a black prospect for the advancement of humaij knowledge that many are passing from research to other avocations, or compelled to devote tl.iei tinm. formerly given to research to journalism.or tho writing of merely popular treatises.