Anniversary Address

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 17, 1884, Unnumbered Page

Anniversary Address by the President (abstract) 1. The President delivered the anniversary address. Abstract After referring to the Costley bequest, and other local matters, the President shortly reviewed the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. In the course of his remarks, he said: “I rejoice to see that a branch of science, still in its infancy, and which may even yet have a hard struggle before its claim to be regarded as a branch of science is fully recognized—I mean the science of jurisprudence—is represented by a paper on the law of gavelkind, by Mr. Coleman Phillips. It has hitherto been considered a difficult task to convince an English lawyer that there is such a thing as the science of law. It will, perhaps, long remain a still more difficult matter to satisfy the public at large that science is in any way connected with legal practice. The writings of Sir Henry Maine, however, have laid the foundation for a new method of investigation in jurisprudence—new, that is as far as jurisprudence is concerned, though the method is nothing but the application of inductive philosophy in place of the a priori methods which had hitherto been adopted by theoretical writers on legal subjects—e.g., Bentham, etc. A systematic study of the customs of the aborigines of these islands would probably afford valuable material for further investigations in the history of law, as the labours of Sir George Grey, Mr. Colenso, and others seem to show.” He then gave an account of the theories which have been offered to explain the Sunda eruption; and proceeded to make the following remarks on Technical Education:—“The purposes for which an institute of this kind exists, should aim both at the accumulation and diffusion of scientific and other knowledge. I hope, therefore, that the time is not far distant, when we shall see established in connection with this Institute, series of lectures somewhat similar to those to which Friday evenings at the Royal Institution of London are devoted during a portion of the year. We have now in Auckland a number of men competent to undertake such a task; and I, for one, should be glad to see a portion of the revenues of the Institute, which we may now hope will increase from year to year, devoted to defraying the necessary expenses of such lectures. There is another direction in which, I believe, this Institute may do valuable service. I cannot help thinking that one of the needs of this city is a school of technical education. I would commend to the consideration of all those who are interested in the matter, the scheme for the organization of the Central Institution of the City and Guilds of London Institute, which is printed in full in the number of ‘Nature’ of the 21st February, 1884. The object of the Central Institution is to give to London a college for the higher technical education, in which advanced instruction shall be provided in those kinds of knowledge which bear on the different branches of industry, whether manufactures or arts. Just as the Royal School of Mines gives a technical training to mining

engineers, so the Central Institution is intended to afford practical, scientific, and artistic instruction, which will qualify persons to become—(1) technical teachers; (2) mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers, architects, builders, and decorative artists; (3) principals, superintendents, and managers of chemical and other manufacturing works. The details of the scheme are of course conceived on a scale, and with a view to an expenditure of funds, which exceed all practical limits for a city like Auckland; but as I believe that the key to the future prosperity of this city is to be found in the development of her manufactures, any attempt, however humble, to afford facilities for the acquisition of technical knowledge would be acceptable as tending to further local prosperity. In this direction the combined efforts of the Institute and University College, together with such private munificence as might from time to time be available, would I believe be productive of no small results.” The President concluded his address as follows:—“It is not given to all of us to divert the current of human thought, or to remodel the universe. Most of us have to be content and thankful if we can, as passing travellers, add but a small pebble to the growing cairn. The great mass of human knowledge is, for the most part, made up of the minute contributions of individuals, and, while we bow in reverence before the achievements of master-minds, we cannot afford to despise the humbler labours of the majority. The truth of a great scientific theory can only be tested by the minute investigation of details, and the discovery of some fact, in itself apparently insignificant, may be fraught with issues of incalculable importance. The only attitude that we can rightly assume is that of humble seekers after truth, humble and yet fearless of results, knowing that nothing will be permanent that is not really true, and that nothing that is true can be unimportant. What the final result may be we can leave to take care of itself. We are ‘toiling upward in the night,’ and who shall prescribe the limits to which we may ultimately attain—for, to quote the words of Charles Kingsley: ‘-Science is accused of trying to scale Olympus, by those who fancy that they have already scaled it themselves, and will, of course, brook no rival in their fancied monopoly of wisdom……And yet Science may scale Olympus after all. Without intending it, almost without knowing it, she may find herself hereafter upon a summit of which she never dreamed, surveying the Universe of God in the light of Him who made it and her, and remakes them both for ever and ever. On that summit she may stand hereafter, if only she goes on, as she goes now, in humility and patience; doing the duty which lies nearest her; lured along the upward road, not by ambition, vanity, or greed, but by reverent curiosity for every new pebble, and flower, and child, and savage, around her feet.”’