LOOKING FORWARD

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 25, 30 January 1930, Page 11

LOOKING FORWARD

THE ERA OF SCIENCE

PRESERVATION OF PEACE

"I look forward and I try to picture the Dominion in the days that are to [be; and I see science .and scientific method playing an ever-increasing role in shaping the deatinics of man and in providing for their material welfare and comfort jtnd for their mental and spiritual happiness," said Dr. C. C. Farr (president of the New Zealand Institute) in the concluding portion of his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Board of .Governors of the institute to-day.

"I realise," he added, "that we, here and now, are laying foundations upon which great superstructures are bound to be erected. It behoves us, therefore, to act wisely and with regard to the future as well as the present; Oiir first fifty years of existence as an institute are nearly completed; but the time will como when my successor of that day will be addressing. aU body, evolved out of this Board of Governors, as it nears its 500 th anniversary. That time will come, though it may seem a long way ahead. We shall be dead and gone, but there is every reason to believe that this institute will survive, for during the institute's existence the world has entered the era of science. Fifty years ago there was very little of scionce, and it played only an insignificant part in the affairs of mankind. To-day, however, a method has been suggested by Sir Thomas Holland, and I think it seems to be a workable one, by which a knowledge of science can be ,used to bring about a continuous era of peace. In those long years of prosperous usefulness ■ which are before it, what will be the position of the New Zealand Institute—or of the "Eoyal New Zealand Institute," as I trust its name will then be?

ANJEARLY MASTER BUILDER,

"Much depends on how wo build the fow stones in the building which it is our duty and privilege to place on the foundations which those early master builders, notably Sir Jamea Hector, laid so solidly. We should have high ideal 3 and work with energy, realising that, fliough tho Institute 'b life may1 be long, our own time is, as it Avere, but the tick of a clock. My own view of the matter is that the New Zealand Institute should stand, as d«es the Royal Society in England, at tho head of tho other more specialised scientific organisations. These are being formed at present, and. will continue to come into existence; and tho New Zealand Institute should welcome rather than look askance at their creation. They are not, and should not be competitors with, but supporters of this, tho parent scientific society in New Zoaland. Local branches of both tho Institutes of Physics and of Chemistry are bound to be formed is time goes on, and local Astronomical Societies and Entomological Societies will also find thoir spheres of usefulness. These and others like them should ,be the feeders Of tho New Zoaland Institute, and not drainers. of its means of BUbsistonce. Let us, therefore, begin our deliberations to-day feeling that wo are here to lay another stono in what I hope will bo a noble structure; and lot us, therefore, see to it that the stone is well and truly ilaid."