PICTURE OF ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 102, 24 January 1933, Page 9

PICTURE OF ENGLAND

Thousand Years to Come

DEAN INGE’S PROPHECIES (Reuter.— Special to “Dominion.”) Dean Inge drew a picture of England 1000 years hence when speaking in London. He considered that by that time England would have a population of only 20,000,000 —about half the present population—and that they would live mainly in villages. “Physicists and astronomers tell us there is no reason why this planet should not be habitable by human beings a million years hence, but whether the human beings will be at all like us and recognisable as men is very difficult to say,’’ he said. “London may be a hundred feet under water 30,000 years hence, and another ice-age is due at some period which may make these islands uninhabitable.

“I do not think it is all possible that we shall ever colonise Mars and Venus or that we shall ever be invaded from those planets. Mars is far too cold. I do not think many people believe in the canals which an ingenious American saw there. “As for Venus, there is some reason to think the whole planet is _ under water. We might have one nice hot bath there before being devoured by a. dinosaur. Besides, there is the impossibility of ever getting there.”

The Dean said that our race had not intrinsically made any progress since the discovery of tools. Skulls of 40,000 years ago which had been found seemed to have brains as good as our own The changes going on. the Dean considered, were for the most part degenerative. He said that man’s jaws were getting narrower, he was becoming balder, possibly his sight and bearing were not as good as those of the savages, his sense of smell was less keen, and he was losing his claws and fur.