HONOURED GUESTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18496, 5 September 1923, Page 11

HONOURED GUESTS.

WELCOME TO SCIENTISTS.

ORATION BY' GOVERNOR.

A REMARKABLE SPEECH.

1 ''We, the youngest nation of the Pacific and the world, bear. ourselves proudly this day because of the Council gathered to our shores, ambassadors of goodwill, to be our honoured guests."

With these wards in the Great Hall at the University in Sydney Sir Walter Davidson greeted the visiting scientists who are attending the Pan-Pacific Congress. '

"I welcome you. of the ancient East, sage savants of tho world-to-be," continued .the Governor. , "You come from the ancient fanes of knowledge, charged with the, heritage of countless aeons of Hi-rested thoughts. Thrice welcome !

"I welcome you, our own folk of the Northern Isles in the West, our Homeland ; from the grey cloisters of learning in the dark, cold land of our fathers, patient to endure and ever, ready to' venture, the. whole world over, and, like silent builders of the coral atolls, ever laying tins foundations in new lands ot your : own people.

'"And wolcomo to you, descendants ot the pioneer voyagers to cast and west, the courtly Spaniard, the forerunner "of them all; the Frenchmen, . tho discoverers in every realm; and to you, our cousins from the Netherlands, our dearest foe of allour kinsmen and neighbours whom wo havo fought, and honoured and admired on every land and every sea ot Venturedom. ■ .

"And welcome to you—most cordially— our elder lnethren of .America and Canada. lour problems of to-day are our problems of to-morrow. We stumble along striv-ing—-as m' honour bound— make the world a tetter place to live in. ; "We look to you entomologists to police our products, he said, "and keep evil weevils from our .door. Whn you have guarded us from the ■ boll in our cotton and -the borers in our timber, we will rise and call you 'blessed.'". r lhe chief need of science in Australia, continued the Governor, was the more liberal endowment of pure science and a generous provision for travelling scholarships and fellowships, as well as for further endowment of local research. Governments were doing much, but more help was needed.

While we wonder that science, art, and goodwill, concluded Sir Walter Davidson, "advancing hand in hand, can make blessings— spiritual, mental, and material—on our assembled nations, vet always in the deep recesses of our hearts we wonder— we hope-and indeed believe, that meetings such as ours will exorcise the demons of jealousy and unrest, and lay them in a limbo with the brutalities, and follies of the past, Nationhood and pride of race is a glory only so long as its inspiration ib actuated by 'Peace on earth and good will among men.-"'