A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 9

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Basketball

A New Zealand women’s team is at present iu Australia playing basketball. Basketball is of American origin. The man who originated the game, Dr. James A. Nalsmith, of Kansas University, U.S.A., played it only twice — in 1892 and 1898. It was started as a training method for men, and it is still played largely by men in the United States. It was left to a woman, Mrs. Abbott, of Smith College, U.S.A., to “take the brutality out” of basketball by inventing the line game. In the United States in 1926 the sum of fifty million dollars (£10,000,000) was expended for basketball buildings. The game there leads all the sports iu attendance, the number being estimated at 80,000,000. It is estimated that more than 1,000,000 girls play basketball,, and that altogether 18,000,000 persons play the game. Oil In The Empire

Concern has been expressed in England at the small proportion of oil within the British Empire. The oil-rocks of England have been tested for many years and are still being both investigated and drilled. There are shales in both. England and Scotland from which oil may be got, but the process is slow and expensive, and under any circumstances will never more than fill a very small proportion of Britain’s requirements, according to authorities. Similar conditions and results are said to obtain in Australia. Much money has already been spent in boring for petroleum with barren results. Suggestions have been made to exploit Roma in Queensland as an oil producer. But, here again, experts say that Queensland and the rest of Australia can be definitely left out of the plan of oil production. The Commonwealth of Australia employed experts from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to examine an area iu J?ew Guinea, but no oil was found. It is calculated that more than £500,000 has been sunk in Papua alone. In New Zealand, oil has been found in Taranaki, and there are experts now investigating the prospects in other parts of the Dominion. Commonwealth States The Premier of Queensland, Mr. W. Forgan Smith, has declared that Queensland would insist on the right of its Agent-General in London to speak on its behalf as a sovereign State. Mr. Forgan Smith’s contention that Queensland is a “sovereign State" appears to be untenable. The relations between the United Kingdom and the States of Australia and the provinces of Canada are in the main untouched by the Statute of Westminster. They are not “sovereign States.” The federation of the Commonwealth was undertaken rather in recognition of the advantages of common action in external matters as against foreign interests in the Pacific and the influx of criminals, and in such questions as the tariff and communications, than for any pressing need of unity. The Governors are appointed by the Imperial Government, and they are in no sense subordinates of the GovernorGeneral ; they do not correspond with the Imperial Government through him, though normally they keep him supplied with copies of their dispatches. The legislation of the States cannot be disallowed by the Commonwealth, and the powers of the States in all matters remain unaltered as before federation, save in so far as the constitution of 1900 grants exclusive Rowers to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth, however, is also granted concurrent powers on a considerable range of topics, and when these powers are exercised they supersede State powers. The limitations imposed on the States by the Commonwealth Act have the effect of making the States less than sovereign. Queensland

Oueensland, for which Mr. W. Forgan Smith claims the status of a “sovereing State,” has an area of 670.500 square miles and a population bordering on 1,000,000. It occupies the northeastern portion of Australia, and is bounded by the Pacific Ocean, New .South Wales-Bouth Australia, Central I Australia, Northern Territory, Gulf of Carpentaria; and Torres Strait. The greatest, length from north to south is 1300 miles, and the greatest breadth, east to west, 000 miles. Of the total area, 359,000 square miles lie within the tropics. The State’s' chief industry is the production of merino wool, the number of sheep being between 20,000,000 and 30.000,000. . Queensland is also the largest beef-producing State in the Commonwealth. It is also the cauesugar producing . State. Butter and cheese are extensively produced. Wheat aid maize are also grown. The mineral wealth of the State is vast and varied, and includes the largest ieposits of silver-lead in the world, and some of the largest copper mines. Gold, tin; and coal are also mined. In Queensland there are 6460 miles of Government-owned railways, and one can travel by rail from Mount Isa to Quilpie, 2062 miles, without doubling one's tracks, the longest railway journey in any State in. Australia.

The thousand miles of coastline between Brisbane am’ Cairns is served by a modern fleet of passenger vessel* with weekly services both ways. A daily aerial service is maintained between Brisbane and Sydney. The outstanding tourist attraction of Queensland is the Great Barrier Beef. British Association

More than 2500 'scientists assembled at Cambridge for the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The British Association is an organisation of scientists whose object is to promote the advancement of science in all its branches. It is divided into several sections, each of which has its own president and committee members. These sections are: Mathematics aud physics; chemistry; geology; zoology; geography; economics and statistics; engineering; anthropology ; physiology; botany: educational .science.

The chief founder of the association was Sir David Brewster, though many eminent men of science were associated with its formation. The first meeting was held at York in 1831. when the constitution of the society was decided upon, aud in the following year at Oxford. The association holds its annual conference at different places in the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the town being determined two years in advance. It is held when Parliament Is not in session, so that more space is likely to be given in the newspapers to its papers and discussions. The papers discussed deal with applied as well as pure, or theoretic science. Thus the sections devoted to engineering. geology, agriculture and economics often debate matters of commercial interest. The association has a membership of about 7000, aud among other activities makes grants for research.