SCIENCE CONGRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23704, 11 January 1939, Page 10

SCIENCE CONGRESS

EMINENT MEN AT CANBERRA H. G. WELLS’S LECTURE AS FEATURE (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Jan. 6. Canberra will welcome its greatest crowd of visitors since its official opening in 1927, when delegates to the conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science gather there next week. About 1200 visitors are expected, and accommodation is now at a premium. All the hotels and boarding-houses are booked out. Many hundreds of visitors are being accommodated at private and at the Canberra Girls’ Grammar School buildings and the cadets’ quarters at the Royal Military College at Duntroon. It will be the jubilee meeting of the association and will last from January 11 to January 18, It will be notable for the presence of a large number of distinguished overseas visitors, including Mr H. G. Wells. The meeting will be attended by more than 1000 members, including representatives of Great Britain, the United States, and visitors from all the Australian States and New Zealand, and about 250 residents of Canberra, who have joined the association. One of the features of the proceedings of the association will be a public lecture by Mr Wells, in Albert Hall, Canberra, on the night of January 12. He will take as his subject, 4 ' The Role of English in the Development of the World Mind.”

Other distinguished visitors _ include: —Sir John Flett, who retired in 1935 from the position of director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain; Sir John Russell, director of the Imperial Bureau of Soil Science at the Rothamstead Experiment Station, England; Professor F. T. Brooks, professor of botany in the University of Cambridge, who has been nominated as the official representative of the British Association; Professor N. V. Sidgwick, of Lincoln College, Oxford, and immediate past president of the British Chemical Society, Professor Ralph H. Carr, of the Purdue University, Indiana, United States, who is the official representative of the American association; Dr Anita Muhl, also of the United States; and Sir George Simpson, well-known for his Antarctic explorations and his work in meteorology. The proceedings which will be preceded by the annual meeting of the Australian National Research Council, consisting of fellows of the association, will be divided into 16 sections, and they will probably be followed by the appointment of research committees. The 1939 meeting of the association will be the first to be held in the Federal capital. The president-elect is Professor Ernest Scott, Emeritous Professor of History m the University of Melbourne. who' takes over the office of president from Sir David Rivett. Presidential addresses and papers in subsequent discussions in the different sections will deal with aspects of astronomy, mathematics and physics; chemistry, geology, zoology, history, anthropology, economics and social science, engineering and architecture, medical science and national health, education, psychology and philosophy, agriculture and forestry, veterinary science and botany, physiology, pharmaceutical science, and geography and oceanography. - The Liversidge research lecture will be delivered by Professor H. G. Denham, who will take as his subject “Modern Developments in the Industrial World.” Professor Ernest Scott, in his presidential address will deal with “The History of Australian Science.” Among the social functions will be a garden party and an “at home ” at Government House by the Governor-General and Lady Gowrie; and a presidential reception at Parliament House. The excursions will include a visit to Mount Kosciusko. The Government has made Parliament House available for an inaugural garden party on the afternoon of January 11, and the Minister for the Interior (Mr McEwen) and Mrs McEwen will welcome the delegates at the Hotel Canberra before the garden party. Parliament House is being made available for the presidential reception on January 16, and the Albert Hall is being provided free for evening discussions. The treasurer (Mr Casey) is expected to be the only other Minister in Canberra at the time.

All the prominent English visitors have been invited to stay at Government House and all delegates will be entertained at an at home at Government House on ( Friday of next week. In addition the Gov-ernor-General and Lady Gowrie will give three receptions.