6;2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The Scientific Australian 



No. 2 of the twenty-first volume of this useful periodical contains two special 

 articles, one on " A New Theory on Australia's Rainfall," by V. G. Anderson, and 

 the other "Australian Steel Foundry Practice," by A. M. Henderson. In addition 

 to these articles on technical subjects is an interesting description of Wireless 

 Telephony recording the fact that a conversation was conducted and clearly heard 

 between two persons separated by a distance of 2,100 miles, and a discussion on 

 the vexed question of the Canals of Mars and whether or not these are produced 

 artificially. Dr. F. H. Campbell's article on " British Chemical Industries and 

 the War " shows the interest taken in Australia in things British, and if we in 

 England take the trouble to keep ourselves abreast of scientific affairs in the 

 Colonies, it would certainly be one factor in maintaining the British Empire as an 

 undivided whole. 



Street Nuisances (the Editor) 



Many complaints have recently been made regarding the nuisance caused in 

 London by whistling for taxicabs, especially in the neighbourhood of hospitals and 

 convalescent homes ; and indeed several wounded officers have written to the 

 press describing the suffering which such whistling at late hours at night causes 

 them. As the result of a discussion in the Times, which was joined in by Sir 

 Henry Morris and myself among others, I wrote to the Marylebone Borough 

 Council asking them whether they could do anything. The Town Clerk very 

 kindly put the matter before one of the Committees of the Council, but this Com- 

 mittee came to the conclusion that they were unable to take action in the matter. 

 This is, I understand from elsewhere, due to the fact that Parliament has not 

 passed sufficient legislation to cover such nuisances in a proper manner. The 

 Town Clerk informs me that "at the Marylebone Police Court on the 1st inst. 

 (February) a man who persisted in whistling for taxicabs near to a nursing home 

 was summoned for an infringement of the Council's bye-laws, copy of which I sent 

 to you on the 7th ult., and was fined 10s. It will be seen, therefore, that in certain 

 cases the police are able successfully to take action under our bye-laws." 



