SCIENCE CONGRESS PAPERS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1022, 11 January 1911, Page 5

SCIENCE CONGRESS PAPERS.

0 YESTERDAY'S PROCEEDINGS. MANY INTERESTING SUBJECTS DEALT WITH. MORALITY AND SANITATION. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Rec. January 11, 8.50 p.m.) Sydney, Jauuary 11. 'Numbers of interesting papers were I read iu -'tlie different sections, of the I Sci-enco Congress at the University to- | day. Science and Agriculture. . Professor Angus, of Adelaide, iu his presidential address- in the agricultural section, on the subject "The Eolation of Science to the Further Development of Australian Agriculture," dealt with, the great need for research work to meet the special problems of the country. Particularly should any farming as applicable to light rain areas be investigated. They did not want a Royal Commission to report, on the various problems, but a body of trained workers to tackle tho matter on systematic lines. ■ The scientist and the farmer must become co-workers. He strongly praised the system of experimental farms, and suggested the establishment of central research stations. Unemployment.-; Mr. E, Fo wles. (Bri'sbnne) ■ read a paper on "Unemployment,"' 'in' the course of which* lie reviewed the history of the legislation of different countries dealing with the .question. He pointed out that so far as Australia was concerned, there was very little unemployment,- but on the contrary a scarcity of labour in a nfimber of trades. : Referring to New Zealand, Mr. Fowles , said the Dominion's Department of Labour had more than justified itself. The Labour bureaux of Australia and NewZealand had. been of exceptional valuo in directing workless 'men to work. The. past four years of prosperity had resulted in almost all applicants finding permanent work.

The Declining Birthrate. Mr.. J. Stonham (of tho Victorian Statistical Bureau), in a paper on "Statistical Sidelights on Australian Morality," said statistics showed that Australia was sharing in what practically appeared to bo a world-wide tendency to restrict the birthrate. The average number of children per married mother. was between three and four, while the potential average was estimated to rango from five to seven. AYithout further inquiry, however, they could not raise .the ory of race suicide. After reviewing " somo • causes usually- associated with. restriction, ■ Mr. Stonham pointed out that the. ddath-rate was rapidly declining, so that the problem of the world's food supply must even at the present rate of natural increase sooner or later , become acute. . Could it therefore be said that Nature herself was providing against too rapid an increase by the limitation "of productiveness.

Publjc Health Ideals. ■ Doctor Norris (Commonwealth Director of Quarantine), in the course of an exhaustive piaper .on "Public ' Health Ideals," said disease and death were the price man paid for. his neglect of natural laws and preference for half truths instead of precise scientific truth. There was but one way out—by : deeper, wider knowledge of the relation, of. nature to man and the'studied, deliberate, and \inswerving. application of ; that knowledge to human problems. The paper strongly urged the claims of the science of hygiene. Mr. Farrer's Wheat Successes. Mr. Sutton, the New , South Wales experimentalist, in a paper, appreciative of the work of the late-Mr.' AYi Farrer, the wheat expert, said' that as a result of Mr. Farrer's efforts Australia, could now grow strong as well as whito wheat, and need not fear the , disastrous ravages ■ of a 'rusty season as it did before Mr. Farrer's success was achieved. ...