ADVANCE OF SCIENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 280, 26 November 1931, Page 22

ADVANCE OF SCIENCE.

BRITAIN'S CONTRIBUTION.

ARTS, LITERATURE, INDUSTRY

WHAT OF THE FUTURE

The extent to which British citizens had contributed to the advance of science was the subject of an- address by Mr. W. -J. Holds-worth, shaking to members of the Auckland Creditmen's Club yesterday, in Milne and Choree's reception, hall. It was an Englishman who discovered the potentialities- of steam. It was the same man who harnessed it and made it the slave of civilisation. It was a Scotsman, William Symington, who sailed the first steam boat, the Charlotte Dundas. in ISO 2. It heralded the age of iron ships. Throughout tlie whole of the industrial revolution, Britain had been prominent. Then, and not so long ago, had come the motor age. If not the first, Britain was early in the field with the motor ear. Britain produced tlie finest cars in the world. He referred to the great pioneering work of Sir Frederick Royce. and to the discovery of the pneumatic tyre by J. B. Dunlop. At present Britain was supreme in the air, on the sea and on land. She was first in the realm of steel, cotton and machinery. In electricity and wireless she took a prominent place. The first man to project a picture by wireless was a Scot, John Baird. In ari and literature, Britain was the equal of any, if not the superior. But these things were of the past. What of the future? Were the potentialities of the Empire but realised and made use of by statesmen, Britain could be greater by far. Given tariff barriers, the Empire could be thus developed, and many of the ills of depression at present so prevalent in the Empire could be cured.