NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 5, 1 October 1929, Page 10

NOTES OF THE DAY

Some weeks ago. there was an appreciative editorial reference in these columns to the very valuable scientific research work which had been carried out by Sir Ronald Ross in connection with tropical diseases. A cable message yesterday announced . the impending departure of a research expedition from the Ross Institute to Northern Rhodesia to study measures for controlling malaria Jn' order to enable copper-mining operations to be carried out. Similar measures had to be undertaken before the Panama Canal became an engineering possibility. Tn each case the medical research worker is the pioneer. The Advisory Committee of the Ross Institute is a body of business men, technical experts, and medical research . workers organised together for the successful development of tropical and sub-tropical areas of the Empire. In another message there. was an interesting reference to the value of the aeroplane in investigating the course 1 - of plant disease epidemics. . The losses imposed upon agriculture by these diseases are terrific. In 1916 a bad epidemic of “red.ru.t in wheat resulted in a loss to the Canadian farmers of fifty millions sterling. Plant diseases in New Zealand; it was pointed out recently, have accounted for heavy annual losses in fields and orchards. Each year sees greater reliance being placed upon the knowledge and advice of the scientific research workers. The services of mycologists, specialists in plant diseases, are just now at a premium,, for the world demand is greater than the supply. Science, at last, is coming into her own.

Interesting though very serious questions are raised- by a cable message published yesterday in reference to the increase in the number of divorce cases in England. London’s record alone, for the current year, is expected to reach 2600. The 1914 figure has been quadrupled. According to the message, which does not appear to be officially authenticated, one of the primary causes of the increase is held to be the Act .which prevents publicity of the proceedings in the newspapers. One finds some hesitation in accepting this. There can be no doubt that the comparative secrecy of divorce proceedings in the Courts under the new Act may have encouraged sensitive persons now to seek the assistance of the Courts in solving theii matrimonial troubles when previously they would have shrunk from the publicity entailed. From that point of view the Act may have served a useful purpose in revealing the true figure of unhappy alliances. Apart from that; however, the fact to be noted is that the world-wide divorce tendency is a rising figure. The increase is not to be altogether explained by the elimination of divorce as a sensational feature of the Press Court news. The decay in many countries of the home as an institution may be a factor. There are in fact, quite a number of factors which are pertinent to the question, and without a large amount of evidence, carefully collected and sifted by expert investigators, it would be unwise to dogmatise. .Such an investigation may perhaps be asked for some day. In tire meantime one can only regard the rising figures with misgivings.