SCIENCE CONGRESS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1035, 26 January 1911, Page 6

SCIENCE CONGRESS.

. f ANTARCTIC RESEARCH. ■ THE AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. 'During the course of an interesting conversation with one of-the New Zealand officers of tho Australasian Association for tho Advancement of - Science, who returned from Sydney by the Moc,raki yesterday, a representative of The Dominion learnt something of the movement in Australia in connection with Antarctic research. Under the guidance of its t'aetfnl and able president (Professor Ormo Masson, F.lt.S., D.Sc.), the Australasian Association, the interviewer was informed, has entered upon the organisation of several scientific undertakings. One of these was tho proposed. Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Tho association granted that expedition, provided Dr. llawson was in supreme command of it, aiIOOO (one-third of the funds of me association). A further condition was that a committee of the association should appoint, with the leader's final approval, the scientific staff of the expeditibiii ami ..organise' that part of its work. . The association' in doing this becomes a.body which speaks and acts for science in .Australia. ' Gathering of British Scientists. At the close of the congress, Professor. Masson reported that the British Associ-ation-had accepted the invitation of the Commonwealth Government .to' meet on Australia-in 1914. - As over a hundred English scientists, including such eminent nien as "the following had signified their intention of being present:— . Sir William Ramsay, 'the great physical chemist; Professor Rutherford, the great New Zealand-born authority on radio-activity,-and who was awarded the:JSiobel prize- for chemistry in 1908; Sir William Crookes, the inventor of the Crookcs tubes, and discoverer of ■ a new element;' Sir Oliver. Lodge, one of -. the- men of science who have gone into psychical as well as physical research; Professor Herdman, of the Chair of Natural History at tho University of Liverpool • Professor Armstrong, Professor of. Chemistry at .tho London Central Institute; Major MacMahon, the leading mathematician, secretary of the British Association; the general treasurer. Professor Perry, , one of- the best-known scientific engineers; Sir' Joseph Larmor, secretary of the. lioynl SocietySir 'E. Thorpe, late director of the Go\> eminent Laboratories, 'London; Dr.' Uoytl Dawkihs, the geologist; Professor Sollas, president of the Geological; Society, Professor, of Geology aiid Palaeontology nt Oxford in 1897; Professor Gregory, author of ."The Dead Heart of Australia"'; Professor J. A. Thompson, tho biologist; Professor G. C. Bourne, the anatomist; Professor G. B. Poulton, the zoologist; ■Sir. D; Johnston, K.C.M.G., Dr. 3. S. ;Keltic, , ,andjSir 0. M. Watson, who are interested mainly in matters gekjgraphica , ; Professor Hudson Beare, of-Edinburgh; Professor Hele Shaw, Professor Hopkinson, and Sir-AV..H. Prcece (eiieincerine): Dr. C. -Elliott-Smith, who is one of the best-known- anatomists in Great Britain; and Professor A. C. Haddon, of Cambridge, ami Professor J. X. Myers' (the three leading embryologists); Sir K. T. Fraser, of Edinburgh, Professor Cleland, ot Glasgow, and Professor Sims Woodhead of Cambridge, the leading physiologists. ir ' It is possible," ' said the speaker, that several of tho most, eminent European .scientists,- many of whom speak ■Mulish fluently, will' be present. ■'■ Australia, niay look forward to the meeting to give a great stimulus to science there. ' •• ■ -...■.

, It was urged that the British Association should come via Canada to Australia, thereby avoidm? the heat of the Red Sea, , and. that they should. I.IOUI a .short preliminary meotini* in New: Zealand.. All tho, advantages 'of. this - arrangement were carefully put - forward, 'but tho. Australian scientists held that there wsb-.no' likelihood Hint tho' Commonwealth Government,- which-is siviim £10,000 towards . the. expenses of tho visit, would, agree to such a plan. As it would bo.a very cre.it pity ioi so many British scientists to be so-near New Zealand and for us. to-inks tho intellectual ■ stimulus of such a visit, it is to bo'hoped ■finme acceptable arrangement may yet be discovered. • ;. . ' Wheat Cultures, i '■ : . "During the congress " a .well-deserved tribute ' was . paid to, tho late .William Farrcr, an Englishman—a graduate of. Oxford, I.believe—who came, to Australia and deyoted- all , his energies (though hoonjoyed poox- health). and 'his private fortune, to quietly breeding wheats peou harly suited to. Australian" conditions - His experiments bejan to lie .successful in 1890,. and ho obtained rust-rosisting wheats; 'flours from ' whioh were stroni; and whitq,.,but, above all. wheats which have since proved exceptionally prolific m New South WalesrVirtoria and South Australia., •He died.. while carrying out this .work, but before any but a few had appreciated Ms labours; Australians havo since realised how. .unselfish , Farrer's work was, how invaluable it has been to their country, and how science may help industry." . . ' ; • • •