BIRTH OF WORLDS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XL, Issue XL, 3 February 1911, Page 1

BIRTH OF WORLDS.

We have sent you cricketers, riflemen, scullers, and casual statesmen, from Australasia, ' said Sir Gecrge Reid, Australian High Commissioner, speaking at the Colonial Institute the other afternoon, " but this is the first time we have sent you a man on a scientific misison."

Professor Bickerton, to whom his remarks referred, and who subsequently lectured on " The Romance of the Heavens," was Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Canterbury College, and has come to England to explain his theory of the birth of new worlds. To enable him todothis the Government of New Zealand has granted him thesum of £3OO, to which the scientific societies and university officials have added another £3OO, while the Governoi-General of Australia contributed another £IOO.

Th professor, who is seventy years of age, is an Engishman by birth. He was trained as a boy as a civil engineer, and was a brilliant student. Thirty-six years ago he accepted the professorship in .New Zealand, and while there elaborated his theory of temporary stars, which he explained with enthusiasm to a large audienca. Briefly explained, it is this: The countless suns of the Milky Way are known to travel in two great streams in opposite directions. A.s they pass each other at tremendous speed they attract each other, and in the collisions that occur particles are torn from each star. The two ' .wounded ' suns pass on their way, but the part cles coalesce ard fo'm a tfci.d body of terrific heat and energy, known to astronomers as temporary stars. Owing to its heat this body explodes, and is finally dissipated into atomic dust.

The professor claims this theory while successfully accounting for the appearance of the temporary stars, proves, too, that a continual rejuvenescence of the csmic system is in prigress, thus giving proof of the eternal character of the universe.