Presidential Address: The growth of accuracy in ecology

[First paragraph(s)...]
I am very conscious of the responsibility that has fallen on me to deliver this, the first presidential address to the New Zealand Ecological Society. It is perhaps customary for a presidential address to deal in broad terms with some topic related to the main objects of the body to which it is addressed. I feel that I ought therefore on this occasion to talk about ecology in a fairly general sort of way Much as I should likee to do so, I am immediately up against the fact that ecology covers such a wide field, and has so many aspects, that it would be possible for few people-of whom I am certainly not one-to deal at all competently with the subject as a whole. All I can hope to do tonight is to give you some idea about what ecology looks like, as seen by one whose working life has been largely devoted to studying the inhabitants of fresh waters, and who has pi obably developed a bias in favour of the quantitative approach. I ought perhaps to begin by defining what I mean by "ecology", but I'm not going to If I did, probably many of you would promptly say to yourselves: "That's not what I mean.", and that would invalidate much of my subsequent argument.