NOTES 333 



we see the effect of the experience thus readily acquired, when 

 united with the high development of mental labour, in the 

 rapid growth of new industries abroad. . . . With us, there is 

 a wide-spread jealousy of science and a supposed antagonism 

 between it and practice. . . . While we continue to rely upon 

 local advantages or acquired experience, we allow a vast 

 power to arise abroad, which is already telling against us with 

 wonderful effect." Sir William Ramsay also deplored the 

 fact that no publicity is given to the work that is being done 

 in this country. The names of the workers are studiously 

 suppressed without any need for such secrecy, and one body 

 of men is barely cognisant of the aims and achievements of the 

 others. At the close of the meeting Sir William Mather stated 

 that a letter conveying the opinion of the meeting would be 

 forwarded to the Prime Minister. 



Artificial Production of Rain in Queensland 



A correspondent in the Brisbane Courier speaks of experi- 

 ments conducted in Queensland and in Japan, and calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that last year the radio-telegraph engineer 

 to the Commonwealth, Mr. Balsillie, patented a process for 

 producing rain. The matter has also for a number of years 

 engaged the attention of Sir Oliver Lodge, and in reply to 

 questions put to him by a Queensland farmer a few months ago, 

 Sir Oliver said that the idea of producing rain by means of 

 electric currents driven cloudward had engaged his thought 

 thirty years ago, when he lectured before the British Associa- 

 tion at Montreal on the subject. Since then he has conducted 

 experiments on a larger scale ; but what he desired was to 

 see it tested on a still larger scale, and he has sought methods 

 whereby large quantities of electricity can be discharged into 

 the atmosphere from elevations, not only for the purpose of 

 bringing rain, but of locally clearing away mist and fog, a process 

 which he regards as more probable, indeed certainly possible. 



22 



