NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20375, 2 October 1929, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE CINEMATOGRAPH

"The idea of representing objects in motion was 'in the air' during the whole of last century, and since partial solutions of the problem were found by English, French, German, Austrian and American searchers, it is difficult, if not impossible, to say which was the most fruitful," says a correspondent of tho London Daily Telegraph. "All that can be sail, with certainty is that the cinematograph, as wo know it to-day, was first demonstrated publicly by the brothers Lumiero in the cellars of the Grand Cafe, Paris, on March 22, 1895. An apparatus invented by Mortimer Evans, a clever civil engineer, in 1888, and patented in 1890, in his name and that of William I' riese Greene, a London photographer, for 'taking photographs in rapid succession, just lacked those points which would have made it practical. As early as 1882 Edward Muybridge, a native of Kingston, demonstrated the wonders of his zoopraxiscope' in the hall of the Royal Institution, before an audience which included many members of the Royal Family, Sir Frederick Lcighton, Professor Huxlov, and Alfred Tennyson. SUBSIDISED EDUCATION. An official announcement has been mado that the British Government has decided to prepare the necessary legislation to raise tho school age to 15 as from April 1, 1931. Consideration is being given to the form and the amount of maintenance allowances to be granted. "To free education, free medical inspection, and free books for all, we now have added free maintenance between the ages of 14 and 15. Jt is the most Socialistic proposal which has been made in our time," the Scotsman remarked. "Do those for whom the Government claims specially to speak want their children to remain at school until the ago of fifteen ?" the Times asked. "Probably nearly all would say yes; but a large number would add a proviso that the wages thus lost to the family budget should bo made up in whole or in part by a grant. In other words, they are willing that their children should get a better education, and thus become potentially better earners, but they are unwilling to contribute to the cost, except indirectly through rates and taxes. No responsible statesman will fail to realise that free education for all is one thing, subsidised education for all is quite another. We have in this country a most elaborate systeiiji of scholarships and free places in schools, with almost endless ramifications designed to open careers to talents. But a scheme of maintenance giants for all is entirely different in principle. Once it was conceded in one case there would inevitably bo claims from other quarters; and we might have taken the first step downwards on a very slippery slope." .THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE. "The great success of theoretical investigations in recent times naturally leads enterprising spirits to uso them not only in interpreting what we know or can verify by observation, but to lead us into regions where experiment is not available as a check," said Lord Raylcigh in his presidential address to tho mathematical and physical science section of tho British Association at Capetown. "Wo must not expect too much of pure intellect unchecked by observation. Theories that do not stand the test of time pass for the most part into complete oblivion, and we are apt to forget how appallingly large mass of wreckage the total of them represents. The attack on Nature's secrets is now conducted along a long line of battle. No sooner does the defence show signs of crumbling at any point than an eager crowd of combatants, not restrained by any undue respect for the traditional modes of scientific thinking, are ready to throw themselves into the breach. The great array of trained workers in pure science is powerfully reinforced by workers in applied science, who are backed by tho resources of the industrial and financial world and hand back to the physical laboratory the devices which had their birth there in n form infinitely strengthened in power and convenience of application. Thus rearmed with weapons of greater power and precision, pure science advances again to tho attack of fresh territory, and so tho process goes on at an ever-accelerating rate. How long this acceleration is destined to continue it is impossible to say. It shows few signs of abating at present. But for all that I am ,not afraid that our successors will be able to complain that wo have left them no more worlds to conquer." .