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Hokitika Guardian, 21 November 1923, Page 2

A PAPER in which a comparison was made of the probable economic results of the United f-’tntes Transportation Act, 1920, and the- Rriti-h Railways Act. 1921. was rend at the first session of the Economic Science and Statistics Section of the British Assoration, by Mr 0. K. R. Sherrington. Each of these Acts was a consequence of Governmental control or administration of railways during the war and there were many resemblances and soon differences between them. Roth Governments suffered a heavy loss, estimated in the United .States for twenty--! x months, at *900.000.000. In England, post-war opinion favoured a return to private ownership, and the result was the Act of 1921 ; but in Ant-e-ion the legislation was affected by the general anti-trust feeling which had always greatly influenced railway operations since the Inter-State Commerce Commission of 1887 was set up. This

body was contiutied in operation by the United States Act of 1920. Attention was drawn by Air Sherrington to the similar sums provided in the two Acts-— £60,000.000. in this country and 5A00.000.000 in America—for reconditioning tile railways; but iio pointed out that the British sum was a payment by Government, whereas in America it was loans by tile United States dependent on the recommendation of the Commission and definitely apportioned. The results, if compared per mile of track showed an outlay two and a half times as great in Great Britain as in. America. Air Sherrington summed up the probable results and advantages in both countries as being: -Cl) Improved fin. uncial strength of the transportation industry, though excessive profits would disappear; (2) it was unlikely that lower rates would be granted; but (3) it was probable Dint conditions of service for Workers would improve; Ml lire public would get a better set vice and thereby railways would make their bid for grcatc-r public sympathy. Regarding the question of atomic energy discussed at this veal's session of the British Association of Scientific Hcsearch, Sir Krnest Rutherford, the New Zealander was this year's president, ai/d in the course of his add loss dealt with the electrical structure of matter, llis views on the chances of h !cusi»g the stores of energy, which have been generally- acknowledged by s-ientists to he within the atom, wore practical and of great interest. He pointed out that although the prospect was alluring, there was no evidence that the rate of disintegration of these hidden stores of power could be altered in the slightest degiee by the no st powerful laboratory agencies. 1 here was. in fact, by no means the same ce: Dimly as a decade ago, that the atoms of an element contained bidden stores of energy. Apparently the picsem-e of a store of energy ready for iclc.ise is not a property of all atoms but only of a special class of atom like the radio-ac-tive arems, winch have not vet reached the linul state of eipiilihi ium. In bis concluding observation. Si' kriic-t stated t!mt an error, far ton prevalent to-day, was that science progressed by demolition of loimer well-established theories. Such, howeier. wa* rarely Hie case. il wa- often stated that Kinstein's general theory ei relativity nail overthrown the work of Neuter, on gravitation, but lie staieiueul could be further from the truth.