BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1919, Page 5

BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

AN INTERESTING MEETING. By Telegraph.—rress Assn.—Copyright. Received Sept. 10, 10.15 p.m. London, Sept. T). The British Association met at Bournemouth. Sir Charles Parsons, in his presidential address, surveyed the development, of engineer services during the war, particularly the sources of industrial energy, scientific coal consumption, and the provision of cheap electricity. He said that before the war there were only a few Bteel electric furnaces in Britain, but 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 first rate seismology stations, Australia and New Zealand co-operating with English experts.

Mr. P. Chinnery detailed evidence respecting primitive gold mining at Papua by the builders of megalithic monuments. The Eev. Francis Allen gave evidence regarding Melanesian and Polynesian Austroloid stocks being represented in the native populations of America. I Dr. Charles Mercier read an interesting 'paper on the results of eight years' experiments in the electrical treatment of seeds, whereby the increased corn crops have averaged 30 per cent., the cost of I electrification being small and the process I simple.

Trofessor SomcvviUo, in his presidential address to the agriculture section, referred to the effects of potash and other manures upon grasslands. Mr. Oldenshaw emphasised the value of lupinß in the cultivation of light lands poor in lime, owing to their power in assimilating free nitrogen. It was claimed that a method has been discovered in Holland whereby poisons extracted from the lupin grain rendered it fit for stock feeding.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.