Davis Kelvin: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Davis Kelvin: Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17581] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 As Jo Goodhew has just said the Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill does mean a lot to the people of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Although only a word or so of the principal Act is being changed the bill has huge implications because the humanities are included in the objects and functions of the society. 
We have the humanities sitting here and science and technology sitting over there. I ask members to imagine a Venn diagram. I think the argument stems from whether science and the humanities overlap in a Venn diagram. I think it is really important and I think Moana Mackey spelt things out quite articulately to be honest. A debate has gone on for a number of years about the merging of the humanities the sciences and technology. Because I am a new member to the Education and Science Committee I missed out on the submissions. I personally was not fully aware of the Royal Society of New Zealand and what it does so like all good researchers I googled it. The debate has gone on for some time. I came across  
The Two Cultures 
 an influential 1959 Rede Lecture. So the debate has gone on even since 1959. The lecture was by British scientist and novelist C P Snow and its thesis was that “the breakdown of communication between ‘the two cultures’ of modern society the sciences and the humanities was a major hindrance to solving the world’s problems.” I find it quite amazing that people were thinking at that sort of level about the sciences and the humanities and thinking that the breakdown of communication between them—calling them “the two cultures”—was a major hindrance to solving the world’s problems. 
So what is science? I looked up a definition of science and it stated science is “an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world.” An older and closely related meaning still in use today is that of Aristotle for whom scientific knowledge was “a body of reliable knowledge that can be logically and rationally explained.” It is stating there that science is a body of knowledge that can be rationally and logically explained. Technology is “the usage and knowledge of tools techniques crafts systems or methods of organisation in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose. Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species’ ability to control and adapt to their natural environments.” I believe that science and technology are traditionally thought to be more closely related to each other than they are to the humanities. I know from teaching technology at schools that technology is the search for a solution to a problem or a need. 
Then we come to humanities. “Humanities are the academic disciplines that study the human condition using methods that are primarily analytical critical or speculative as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural science. Examples of the disciplines of the humanities are ancient and modern languages literature law history philosophy religion and visual and performing arts including music and theatre. Additional subjects included in the humanities are technology anthropology area studies communication studies cultural studies and linguistics although these are also regarded as social sciences.” So the humanities look more at the human side of things—obviously being “humanities”—compared with the sciences which as I said earlier is a body of knowledge that can be logically and rationally explained. 
The Royal Society does a lot of good in a lot of areas around research the promotion of studies and projects like that. When I was the principal at Kaitaia Intermediate School a teacher at that school took a year’s leave with pay—paid for by the Royal Society—to undertake a study of Ninety Mile Beach and the effect of pingao the native plant that is similar to a hard flax on the sand dunes and erosion and toheroa would you believe. There is a belief that toheroa spawn attach themselves to the pingao. It was a year-long scientific study by this teacher sponsored by the Royal Society. That is an illustration of the good work the society is doing. As I was going through the society’s website I saw the number of ways that it supports and sponsors high school students on overseas trips to undertake higher study. The society supports all manner of research projects. I think it is important to raise this point for the people out there to whom this bill would not mean a lot. I think it is important that people hear and understand exactly the contribution that the Royal Society makes to New Zealand. 
Section 5 of the Royal Society of New Zealand Act 1997 is one of the sections that is being changed. It states: “The object of the Society is the advancement and promotion of science and technology in New Zealand.” That is what the Act currently says. Section 5 is being amended by clause 6 to state: “The object of the Society is the advancement and promotion in New Zealand of science technology and the humanities.” 
I have explained what is involved in technology science and humanities. Sociology which is one of the humanities is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—that “uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social activity often with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare. Subject matter ranges from the micro level of agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and social structures.” That is one of the fields of the humanities that has been brought into the amendment bill. Anthropology is another field of the humanities. It is the study of humanity and it has origins in the natural sciences the humanities and the social sciences. Anthropology asks what defines humans who the ancestors of modern humans are what humans’ physical traits are how humans behave why there are variations and differences among different groups of humans and how the evolutionary past of Homo sapiens has influenced its social organisation and culture. 
That is just a broad outline for those people out there who are wondering what the Royal Society does and what this bill is about. We need to recognise the massive contribution the society makes to research and to education in New Zealand. Even though this is a non-controversial bill and it will probably slip through under most people’s radar I think it is right that we take the time to talk about the great work the society is doing the work that it has done and hopefully the work that it will continue to do in New Zealand for many many more years to come. Kia ora. 
Bill read a second time.