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- As a matter of fact, practical metallurgists grouped together on the spot ignored the advice of Dr. Peters, and shot the ore right into the furnace raw, obviating the calcination charge of 15s. per ton. The Mount Lyell ore at the present time does not return a profit equal to what that calcination charge would have been. The hot-air blast is all done away with. The employment of thousands of men to chop fuel was also done away with as the result of the practical experiments of the men on the spot. If Dr. Peters, notwithstanding his great experience of copper smelting, had continued experimenting with Mount Lyell ores at Lake Superior, the practical result would not have been satisfactory. Tho point and pith of my argument is that the operations of scientists employed by State Departments on the spot dealing with local conditions and with matters arising in the particular States which constitute their spheres of operation, are likely to be more satisfactory in their discoveries than if their activities are directed from one centre in the temporary Federal Capital at Melbourne. I predict that in questions of discovery and research the too great concentration which will ensue will be prejudicial to systematic scientific investigation. The very great scientists, those whose discoveries are severely practical, are not those educated in universities. Great scientists are often like great poets, of whom, it is said that they " learn in suffering what they teach in song." The great scientist has often had a hard task to earn his living. It is the persistence of genius, not Government co-ordination, that results in big things in connexion with scientific research. Pasteur, and the great French centenarian, Chevreul, discovered what they did very largely along the lines of original research. Governments did not do much for them until very late in their careers. Chevreul lived to over 100 years of age. He made important discoveries in regard to the fixation of colours in the dyeing of cloth stuffs when eighty or ninety years of age. He was in Paris at the time of the German bombardment. After the manner of the philosophers of classic times in the- groves of Academus, he was lecturing to the students of his class in the open air, when a German shell fell. He went in, and, like a philosopher, merely recorded in his diary that a scientific institution over which he presided had been bombarded by William of Prussia on such and such a day, to his eternal shame and disgrace. I do not want any one to believe that I undervalue scientific research. I know of nothing more eloquent than the language of a great scientific publication in dealing with this magnificent old chemist on the one hundredth anniversary of his birth : " There this magnificent old man sits in his laboratory, holding silent commune with nature, and earnestly, yet reverently, watching the sublime irradiations of immortal Truth." There could not be a more graphic description of the labours of a scientist. My opposition to the Bill results from the fact that I am a Federalist, just as Senator McDougall's appreciation of it, results, as he told us, from the fact that he is a Unificationist. As a Federalist, I think it my duty at all times to protest against the unnecessary duplication of State activities. In the present condition of affairs in Australia, in the period of financial stress which I see almost upon us, it will be wise on the part of this Committee to defer the opera.tion of the Bill for five years. By that time many people in Australia will have had a good many financial and intellectual cold showers. They will have had time to reflect. I cannot help thinking that the arrangements in connexion with this scientific institution very largely savour of these relating to the establishment of the Commonwealth police. That body was established by the Prime Minister (Mr. Hughes) in a moment of haste, and the Government do not care about doing away with it altogether for fear that it may constitute an implied slur on the activities of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister dashed in with this matter also, and established the present Advisory Council of Science and Industry. This is one of the things that may well be regarded as altogether unnecessary at this juncture. It is a luxury just now, seeing that we have able scientists active along the lines described by Senator Fairbairn and others in the employ of the States at the present time.