PRACTICAL SCIENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17262, 1 September 1916, Page 2

PRACTICAL SCIENCE.

THE DUTY OF THE STATE.' UTILISE WATERFALLS, RIVERS, AND LAKES. Mr H. Hill, of Napier, .in an article in the Wellington “ Post,” urges the Government to spend, money on practical science. “ The British people,” lie says, "have Ljr a generation or more been blind to 1 the great interests involved in this furtherance of science. They have prided themselves •on individuality, and the self-reliance of towns and districts to foster the best interests of the people. And whilst this has been going on nations like Germany have taken the matter of science in hand as they bnvo taken all other aspects of education and the State has fostered research with thd result that the British have been ousted or excelled in certain manufactured products of great value and importance. But that backwardness is not the fault of the workers in Britain. Rather, it is the system that is at fault. New ideas have grown up as to government and training, and what individuals have hitherto done certain States have found it advisable to do. In Australia and New Zealand the State, does collectively much more than is done in England with manifest advantage to all. We, however, have failed to understand the need for State help in scientific work of a particular kind. Let it be steadfastly kept in view that this country has many possibilities in the way of production. Our oil country has not yet been explored and tested, our soils have never been judged so as to know with any degree of certainty whether they are suitable for a special type of sheep and cattle, whether horses might bo bred and reared for export or what cereals are best suited to them. Our waterfalls, lakes, and rivers have never been used fo" the development of electrical power as is now so common throughout America, Switzerland and many parts of Europe. . Our clays await the scientific worker so as to test their qualities and uses. So too mu' plants await the experimenter, the botanist, and gardener, and in the utilisation of wdsto lands the scientific worker has a source of almost boundless wealth. “ The Hon G. W. Russell has kept in view his promise made to the New Zealand Institute, but what is to be. done with his vote of £250? Is the mouoy to bo expended in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, or where? and in what is it tp be spent? Scientific research claims fill the sciences as a field, and there are numerous workers aiming to do something, hut they'themselves are without organisation. and possess no funds to continue their experiments. Research is of two kinds. There is the collector of facts, and there is the utiliscr of them, the latter being utilitarian in application, the former providing material without which progress would not be possible. Hence it follows that whatever en,d the State may have in view in the way of development and inquiry, there must he employed the scientific. and experimental ohemist equally with the physicist and electrician,, whose . experiment-; must follow known scientific laws in the utilisation of materials and information such rs may be supplied at the instance of workers in puro science.”