"THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1937, Page 10

"THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT"

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND SIR JAMES HECTOR

(To the Editor.)

Sir.—A paragraph in last night's "Post," headed "The First Scientific Department," gives a wrong impression of what I said, or, at all events, of what I meant to say when referring to the Geological Survey Department in my address on the early days of the Wellington Philosophical Society. Apparently I expressed myself badly and misled your representative. In the paragraph referred to occurs the sentence "It was under the charge of Dr. Hector, and its main object was to get as much gold as possible and then to find out where even more gold could be obtained."

My intention was to draw attention to the fact that even in those days New Zealand had one scientific Department competently, if inadequately, staffed, but that the reason for this was not a real appreciation of the value of science so much as a desire to be in a position to exploit the mineral resources of the colony; that if there had been no gold or coal there would not then have been a Geological Survey Department. Though I did not explicitly say so, I think the context of my address indicated that it was long before any Government took similarly broad measures with regard to agriculture, aqd that no Government had, in my opinion, yet fully done so in regard to forestry.

I did not state explicitly in my address what I should like to state explicitly now: that the best way to ensure ultimate success in the exploitation of any resources or in the fostering of almost any industry is to lay broad and deep the foundation of scientific knowledge. Moreover, that foundation cannot be broad and deep if it includes no more than a knowledge of the facts that appear relevant. There can be no applied science if there is no science to apply.

I should not have troubled you with this letter but for the fact that the history of the Geological Survey Department and the history of scientific development in New Zealand are so largely the history of many of the best years of the life of Sir James Hector.- Hector was already a noted man of science and was known as a successful and intrepid explorer before he came to New Zealand. It is due to his organising ability, his broad scientific outlook, and his high ideals that the Geological Department has always been truly a scientific Department, for the traditions that he established have been worthily maintained by his successors to this day. NewZealand has never had a public officer that deserved more truly to be called great.—l am, etc., H. B. KIRK. July 30,