ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Otago Witness, Issue 3071, 22 January 1913, Page 5

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. MELBOURNE, January 7. The congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science was opened at the university to.-day, 560 delegates attending. The sectional committees were appointed. Professor Kirk (Wellington) has been chosen as president of the biology section, Mr Mackenzie (Wellington) geography and history, and DrValintine (Wellington) sanitary science and hygiene. In the afternoon Professor David (the president-elect) gave a reception, and in the evening he delivered the presidential address in the presence of a large and brilliant gathering at Wilson’s Hall. January 8. Professor David, in his presidential address, dealt with the Australian climate, past and present, with special reference to the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic factors in its control. He denied that Captain Amundsen stole a march on Captain Scott. Tire latter was well aware that Amundsen intended to make a dash for the Pole. Although the scientific results of such a dash as Amundsen’s did not bulk as large as those obtained by Scott, yet the geographical, meteorological, and oceanographical results were of extreme and unique interest. The professor was of opinion that there was scarcely a shadow of doubt that Scott, after desperate struggles, from w'hich Amundsen, by virtue of his superior knowledge and experience was exempt, readied tire Pole. Recalling the fact that Evans was attacked by scurvy a fortnight after parting from Scott and his companions, who were then making a final dash for the Pole, he (Professor David) said that Evans considered his attack to be due to eating pemmican, w'hercas Scott and bis companions had been using fresh meat. It was improbable, therefore, that any members of the party selected for the dash to the Pole had been attacked by scurvy, though there was some little anxiety thereon. Referring ' to the Mawson expedition, Professor David said that Mawsou’s great ambition was to make good the work which had already been begun in regard to the South Magnetic Pole by Sir Ernest Shackleton. The Macquarie Islands supplied valuable data for forecasting the weather in Australia and New Zealand, especially the latter, and joint arrangements should be made by Australia and New Zeaalnd for the upkeep of a wireless station at Macquarie Islands for this purpose. Mr Howchin, lecturer on geology at the Adelaide University, gave his presidential address to the geology section. He said there was convincing proof that the climate in central and south central Australia had changed to much worse within recent times. From a well-watered and productive area it had become arid and riverless. MENTAL SCIENCE SECTION. WARNING TO YOUNG GIRLS. MELBOURNE, January 9. At the Science Congress the Rev. L. A. Adamson, M.A., head master of Wesley College, Melbourne, delivered the presidential address in the Mental Science section. He said that in alertness, self-de-fence, and power of initiative the Australian boy has not a superior anywhere. His breeding, his nature, and his country make him adventurous, and ready to take risks. If true Australians were a gambling people, continued Mr Adamson, one must remember that Australia was a land of flood and flame, and therefore was and must be a breeder of gamblers—or, to be more polite, of men who willingly took risks. The Australian’s readiness and resource were shown in the fact that Aua-

tralians who had wandered abroad to make their living had almost invariably succeeded. He thought there was much in the Australian theory that no work, how'ever hard, could degrade men. The average Australian boy was lacking in a chivalrous respect for girls of his own age. Nor was the boy wholly to blame. There had taken place a gradual and even rapid breaking-down of the old formalities of intercourse between the sexes. The life of the camp and the beaches was only symptomatic of the change that had been going on in the social system. Whichever sex might be at fault in later life, he would say without fear of effective contradiction that in adolesence it was almost always the girl who commenced a casual acquaintship made in public places, if not by actually accosting the boy, then by what might mildly be termed the look of encouragement. Nothing was more socially amazing than the way in which parents in respectable positions allowed their daughters to roam the streets unchecked, adding scalps to their belts in unwholesome rivalry, and seeing who could pick up the greatest number of chance acquaintances. Then followed correspondence, almost invariably started by the girl. Mr Adamson asked : Was there no combination possible to effect a reform which would make girls value themselves at their true worth, and so recover the lost respect of boyhood and take their rightful place? During the ensuing discussion Dr Nelson said he did not believe a word Mr Adamson had said regarding the boy and girl question. Dr Mary Booth said there was a very urgent need for the education of girls being entrusted to women teachers, who could understand the girl and protect her from dangers and mistakes. PAPER ON TYPHOID FEVER. MELBOURNE, January 9. Dr Purdy, Chief Health Officer of Tasmania, read a paper on the reduction of typhoid fever in Australia. He showed that the death rate therefrom had been reduced by one-third within the last 30 years. It was still, however, 15 per 100,000 for the decade ended 1910, whilst it was only 6.6 in New Zealand, 7 in England, and 6.2 in Scotland, but no less than 46 per 100,000 in the United States. OTHER PAPERS. MELBOURNE, January 9. Mr Dyer, the Government expert at the Maffra beet sugar factory, read a paper in which he claimed that there was no reason why the culture of beet sugar should not attain as high a position in maintaining the fertility of Australian soils as it had had in reclaiming those in Europe and America. Professor Fawsith. of Sydney, delivered the presidential address to the chemistry section. Mr F. Schann, dealing with military science, said the defence scheme had already created a\ marked effect for the better observance of law and order amongst young Australians. BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. MELBOURNE, January 9. The Council of the Science Congress has cabled to Professor Russell Wallace conveving greetings on bis ninetieth birthday, and appreciation of his illustrious life and work. DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA. MELBOURNE, January 9. Mr Petherick, of Sydney, claimed that Australia was discovered over 400 years ago by a Portuguese navigator named De Lope,' who was accompanied by Vespucci, for whom the honour was claimed that he was first making the American coast, Air Petherick also stated that he possessed evidence showing that the coast of W estralia whs visited by Europeans as far back as 1499. THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM. | MELBOURNE, January 10. • Dr Mercer, Bishop of Tasmania, read a

paper on labour as the basis of the social system. He said that market prices -were almost entirely the result of the automatic working of social forces, and it was hard to find a satisfactory substitute. “ Labour is not the sole source of wealth,” continued Dr Mercer. “Land and capital, apart from questions of State or individual ownership, have their part to play. We may grant that a living wage must be established, but we must preserve a large sphere for industrial freedom in our system of free exchanges in open markets if industrial stability is vto be assured.” Dr Springthorpe (Melbourne) delivered an address on some desiderata in Australian hygiene. The Australian, he said, was energetic, enterprising, progressive, and free to act beyond most other peoples, but the Australian failed to see evolution as a factor in both progress and production. He devoted his energies to remedies rather than to prevention, and relied far more on legislation than on obedience. Mr Johnston, Tasmanian Government Statistician, read a paper on wages. He said that the standard of living of the people as a whole could be raised only by cheapening the cost of commodities, by further improvements in labour-saving machinery, and allied natural forces. An arbitrary increase in nominal wages, if restricted to a few industries, might increase both the nominal and the real wages, or the purchasing power of the wage-earners belonging to those trades; but if this mere raising of the nominal wages was too widely extended, it would tend to lose its power to bestow advantage on those whom it included, owing to the fact that they were consumers as well as producers. INFANTILE MORTALITY. Mr Wickens, of the Federal Statists’ Bureau, said that an investigation of the infantile mortality as disclosed by the Commonwealth’s experience for the decennium 1901-1910 showed tliat of 100,000 males born 87,620 would reach the age of five years, while of 100,000 females the number would be 69,289. AN ADVOCATE OF PEACE. Professor Henderson, dealing with the question of rational selection, said it needed only a sufficient number of strong and peaceably-disposed nations to sign a treaty to make it practically impossible for warlike nations to take the aggressive. THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. Professor Baldwin Spencer in the course of a lecture said the Northern Territory contained, apart from aboriginals, fewer tlian 4000 people in an area of 523,000 square miles. There were only 340 whites at Port Darwin, while a few days’ sail away were small islands containing 37,000,000 people. >Seeing these figures, one had fears of what might happen in the near future. PAPERvS BY NEW ZEALANDERS. Professor Kirk (Wellington) delivered the presidential address to the biology section. He dealt with the present aspect of some problems of heredity. Mr Reakes, of the Department of Agriculture, New Zealand, contributed some notes on his investigation of a nutritive disorder of ruminants, the so-called bush sickness. THE NEW PRESIDENT. MELBOURNE, January 11. Professor Baldwin Spencer was elected president of the Association for the Advancement of Science for the ensuing period. THE MARRIAGE QUESTION. Dr Ramsay Smith, of Adelaide, read a paper in the anthropological section. He dealt with in-breeding in marriage. In relation to the Australian race, he said that evidence existed that certain changes,

due to an altered environment, had already . occurred among the white people of Australia. Early unions were desirable, especially among professional people. This I implied fair salaries and a State pension for widowed mothers. MUELLER MEMORIAL MEDAL. The Mueller Memorial medal was awarded by the Science Congress to Professor Howchin, of Adelaide, for his geological research. THE NEXT CONGRESS. The Science Congress resolved that, as the British Science Congress will be held in Australia in August, 1914, the next Australasian Congress should be held at Hobart in 1916. The next congress following that will be held at Wellington. AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS. MELBOURNE, January 14. At the Science Congress a discussion took place on the general problems of the fertility of the soil in Australia, and several papers were read on the subject. The general opinion was that the soil fertilisers in Australia were seldom worked out of the cultivated land, and that practically the whole of what was not used up by the crop remained as a permanent addition to the soil within 9in of the surface. Mr A. Richardson read a paper on the improvement of wheat. He said that the time was not far distant when wheat would be sold on the grade system, like butter, fruit, and other produce. The production of drought-resisting varieties was a problem of peculiar importance to Australia. He also stated that improved ! methods of grain culture had placed the , wheat industry of the Commonwealth in a very secure position. i ! CONTROL OF TUBERCULOSIS. I The hygiene and sanitary science section decided to urge the respective Governments of the Australian States and New Zealand to hold a conference of their chief i medical and veterinary officers, with a j view to reporting on uniform measures for i the control of tuberculosis in cattle and ' pigs. ORPHANS’ ANNUITIES. I Mr Smith (Acting Government Statistician of New South Wales) read a paper on the cost of orphans’ annuities in Australia. He stated that at the age of 45 9 out of every 10 men in the public ser- | vice of New South Wales, and 8 men out of every 10 in the Commonwealth civil service, were married. The number of children under 16 years old to every 100 males between the ages of 21 and 70 in the public service of New South Wales was 132, and in the Commonwealth ser- ' vice it was 127. Amongst the general 1 population of New South Wales the number of children per 100 males was only from 70 to 80. RECORDS OF ABORIGINES. Tire congress adopted recommendations that in view of the rapid decrease of Australian aborigines it was important, in the interests of science, to secure further records illustrative of their beliefs and customs, and in favour of a strict enforcement of the law against the export of scientific specimens. | It also appointed a committee to conI sider the best means of securing the j efficient teaching of English pronunciation ! in the Australian universities, colleges, and schools. i MOUNT LYELL DISASTER. Dr Love read a paper dealing with the North Mount Lyell disaster. He said a ! large number of the victim* lay peacefully with their heads pillowed on their arms and their bodies composed as for sleep. Others were standing in the airboxes with the air playing on their dead faces, their eyes bright, their cheeks rosy,

and their lips cherry rod, like those of healthy infants. Dr Purdy (Chief Health Officer of Tasmania) stated that it was probable that as a result of the disaster the recommendation of the Transvaal Mining Regulations Commission of 1910 would bs adopted tliroughout Australasia. These include the provision of an oxygen knapsack and pump, an air-mask, and oxygen breathing apparatus of approved type for each miner. 'CONGRESS ENDED. The Science Congress has ended. Professor David claimed that in regard to the importance of the papers and tha value-of the work done the congress has not ueen surpassed by any previous one. BRITISH ASSOCIATION’S TOUR. MELBOURNE, January 16. At a meeting of the Federal Council ap pointed to arrange for the visit in August of a large number of members of tha British Association for the Advancement of Science, it was announced that tha Commonwealth Government had granted £15,000 to cover the passages of 150 official representatives, including the selected dominion and foreign scientists. The council decided to ask the British Association to name 25 members of the official parly who would extend their visit to New Zealand, the dominion Government contributing £3O towards the expenses of each member.