PREHISTORIC MAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 24 August 1914, Page 2

PREHISTORIC MAN.

25,000 YEARS OLD. FOUND IN AUSTRALIA. By Cable— Association- -Oopyriglj ' ~ Sydney, August 22. A sensation was cauaud at tnu .Science; Congress by Professors Wilson ana David exhibiting an aboriginal's skull discovered at Darling Downs, believed to be" 25,000 years old. Professor David said it belonged to the pleistocene age. It was far older than any other human remains found in Australia. He concluded: "If we are asked is man a geo logical antiquity, Australia can reply yes." Other scientists supported Professor David's deductions and commented on tlie great importance of the liiw. Another important announcement was the discovery that the juice of the plant euphorbia peplus acted upon a sensitive photographic plata in the dark. Elliott Smith read interesting papers on) tito development t)f man, the farmer dealing with the Polyhesians. lie concluded that the ultimate cause of the decrease of natives when in contact with civilised folk lay in the difference of hereditary neutrality and the incapacity of the savage to take on civilisation quickly enough. Sir Oliver Lodge, in an interview, dealing with the relations of mind anil 'matter, said: "I have maeo* My C know of the existence of intelligences, and of their powers to communicate, which are no longer associated with terrestrial bodies." He added: "This is a very important statement to make from the scientific side." He was now prepared to hold that science was giving an affirmative answer to the question whether we survive bodily death.