5 oo SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and science, and also for including a wider choice of optional subjects, e.g. 

 Engineering, Agriculture, and Anthropology. It is further proposed that practical 

 examinations in science subjects should be abolished, each candidate being 

 required in lieu thereof to furnish proof that he has had laboratory training in an 

 institution of university rank. The adoption of this proposal would obviously be 

 calculated to encourage the candidate to reduce his practical training to the 

 utmost limit and, instead, cram for the theoretical papers. It would probably be 

 better to require the examiners to modify their practical examinations so as to 

 reduce the too prevalent element of chance. 



The Report of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Advisory 

 Council of Science and Industry states that the annual number of students 

 graduating in the pure and applied sciences in Australian universities is only about 

 no, of which most are absorbed by the professions, and only a very few receive 

 training in research — a number insufficient to supply " even the present needs." 

 The Committee consider it most important that steps should be taken to increase 

 this number. They add, " no doubt the demand will to some extent create a 

 supply . . . but it is also true that the supply will create a demand." They 

 evidently anticipate that future conditions in Australia will differ very much from 

 what they did in pre-war days in England ! 



The same report contains some interesting data concerning the prickly pear. 

 This weed pest has now overrun some 20,000,000 acres in Queensland and 

 2,750,000 in New South Wales ; moreover, it is spreading in Queensland at the 

 rate of 1,000,000 acres a year. On agricultural land it can be poisoned by spraying 

 with arsenic acid or by gassing with arsenic trichloride. This process is, however 

 too expensive for use on grazing land, and attempts are being made to find some 

 insect which feeds exclusively on it or a fungus which causes disease in it. A 

 species of cochineal insect attacks one variety of the pear {Opuntia monacanthd), 

 and has been introduced with excellent effects at Bowen and Charters Towers ; 

 but the other varieties still flourish unchecked. 



The first report of the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies, created mainly to 

 promote the co-operation of those interested in pure and applied science and 

 assist in the application of science to industry, shows that most of the ten Sub- 

 committees which have been appointed have already made considerable progress. 

 The Sub-committee on Agriculture is, among other things, considering the 

 development of electrical applications to agriculture in this country. Electricity 

 is used very largely in Germany, not only for stationary motor purposes, but also 

 for ploughing, cultivating and hoeing. There is also the possibility of using it 

 for intensive cultivation by discharging " high-pressure " electricity over the area. 

 The Watching Sub-committee on Education has come to much the same conclusion 

 as the B.A. Committee dealt with below. The Metric System Sub-committee, 

 which is considering the question of Weights, Measures and Coinage, has not yet 

 sent in its report. 



In connection with this last matter a joint meeting of the representatives of the 

 Institute of Bankers, the Association of Chambers of Commerce and the Decimal 

 Association, agreed unanimously on a plan for decimalising the coinage with the 

 present pound sterling as the unit. The scheme was approved by the Council 

 of the Association of Chambers of Commerce on November 7, and they have 

 decided to press the need for this reform through the chambers of commerce in 

 all parts of the United Kingdom. 



The second Report of the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and 

 Industrial Research contains a large amount of important information. The Com- 



