SCIENCE CONGRESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16940, 15 January 1923, Page 8

SCIENCE CONGRESS.

TO-DAY’S PROCEEDINGS. ECONOMIC POSITION OF POLYNESIANS. (Fer Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 15. Before the Science Congress this morning Dr Guy Sc hole tie id read a paper dealiug with ” The Economic Revolution in Polynesia.” He pictured in vivid terms the pre-European ‘vi tn Liieir many divisions, then- piiimuay in Liie Eighteentn Century, when tne first -,exp wrer s ship touche a _c anomic revolution which taught the man ideas oi trade, ly, native economy began to undergo a change. Be lore the next rare ship arrived, the stock of sheep, cattle, pigs and fowls bred from tnuse left by the early Spaniards, Lap tain Cook, and Vancouver furnished the. wherewithal for regular barter. Runaway whites taught the natives how to produce lor this new market, ano from the chiefs tiie power to trade began to centre ai individuals of a lowei caste, int-rodue ing, incidentally, the use of money there. The presence of missionaries did much to check the ravages arising from the use of firearms, which, on that account, did much less damage than in Melanesia. By the opening of the Nineteenth Century native economy had undergone an enormous change, and already the population was on the decrease. The causes of this depopulation, both direct and indirect, were summarised, and the influence of natives shipping away as seamen, harpooners, inter preters, and plantation labourers was traced. The lecturer then proceeded to deal with economic revolution in New Zealand, he said, it functioned somewhat differently Here the climate being temperate, the European settlers were able to work beside the natives and their steady increase had absorbed the lands of the natives, who row possessed the fee simple of lands amounting to ninety acres per head, whereas the Europeans possessed an average of only fifty per head. Up to 1896 the native population was falling in numbers, but since then it had been rising, a fact due to three rrain causes:— (1) Gradual pauperisation, compelling the natives to work. (2) The example of Europeans in their midst showing them how to work. (3) Improved hygiene and medical The lecturer added :—“ While the natives could live in idleness, living on rents and moneys received from Europeans, they were dying off. Now, owing to the decay of the tribal system, all this is changed. They are being pushed into competitive life, and the hard work of which they are- so capable has saved many of their lives. The ideal solution is that tried on the East Coast by the Hon A. T. Ngata. where the natives have banded together in a co-operative scheme for managing and working Their own lands, thus combining the competitive system of the pakeha With the communism of the Maori. RURAL CREDIT IN NEW ZEALAND. <C A brief survey of rural credit in New Zealand,’’ was the subject of a paper prepared for the Social and Statistical Section to-day by .Professor J. B. Condliffe and Mr H. Belshaw, M.A., both or Canterbury College. The conclusion arrived at was that rural industries are suffering not so much from a shortage of credit at the moment as from unsound finance, resulting. from too much credit in the immediate past, and that no economist can view with equanimity the schemes which offer even the danger of a further inflation of credit. , “ The solution of the Dominion’s economic difficulties,” the writers say, “ will not be found in a further era of cheap credit based either on borrowing or internal inflation. The Rural Credit Association’s scheme was admirable within limits, but it can do little or nothing to assist in the present difficulties, and much the same may be said of a State bank. If such schemes are used to provide more liberal credit facilities in an endeavour to evade a recognition of the plain facts of the present situation, the. result will be disastrous. It must be remembered that the longest and most severe financial depression experienced by the Dominion was the period of falling prices in 1873 and 1895. the difficulties of which were very largely due to unwise borrowing and the consequent land boom in the early seventies, resulting in over-capitalisation. which finally recoiled upon the banks.” HEREDITY TESTS. “ That the surviving influence of the ancient hibernating, and subsequent mating, periods of the year on. model - i life is inimical to the energies and mental activity,” was the subject of a paper read by Mr A. B. Flitt, M.A., to the Science Congress to-day. Tests of 355 pupil* of a Melbourne school, the paper said, showed thac height and weight increased most rapidly in the first half of the year, fiom February to July. There was a break or crisis in physical development in July and August, the height increase becoming dominant. The mental functions of the memory and attention were high in the first part of the year, falling suddenly at the July or August crisis, and although there Was a rise again in the second hal p of the year, the average was below those of the first half-year. Speed and accuracy tests showed evidence of nental instability at the July August The address then dealt with suicide and conception of death, and disease, +he statistics of which were all affected by the old hibernating and reproduction period.