THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 September 1919, Page 5

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

LONDON, Sept 95 The British Association met -rt. Bournemc-Mll. Sir Charles Parsons, in his presidential address, surveyo”3 the dcVelGpn_lont of engineering devices during The; war, particularly the sources of industrial energy, scientific coal consumption, and the provision of cheap "é'Jectricity. Sir Charles Par» sons said before ,the War there were few steel electric furnaces in Great Britain. Now there were 117, producing 20,000 tons of steel monthly.

A number of papers of Australian and New Zealand interest were read. Mr G. W_ Walker advocated'firstrate Seismology stations in Australia and -New Zealand, co—opel-ating with English experts. . Mr P. Chinnery dettiled evidence respocting primitive gold mining in Pa,pua by the builders of megalithic monuments. ‘ '

Rev. Francis Allen gave evidenc-1 regarding Mclanesféfn and Polynesian austroloid stocks represented in the native population of America.’ Dr Charles Mercier read an interesting p‘aper on the result of eight years’ experiments on the electrical treatment of seeds. The increase in corn crops averaged_3o per cent. The cost of electrification was small, and the process simple‘ Professor Somerville, in the presidential address to the Agricultural Section, referred to the eflects of potash and other manures upon grass lands. ~

Mr Olders-haw emphasised the Value of luping in the cultivation of light langls poor in lime, owing to its power of assimiliating frcc nitrogen. It Wa<: claimed fhat a method had been discovered in Holland whereby poisonc were extracted from lupins, and the grain‘ rendered _fit for stock feeding.