284 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



be devoted to research. A first instalment of ,£1,000,000 will be available in the 

 financial year ending March 31, 191 9, and the rest in the two years following. In 

 addition to this monetary assistance the importation of foreign dyestuffs will be 

 controlled for a period of ten years after the war by a system of licences. Finally, 

 it appears that British Dyes, Ltd., are to amalgamate with Messrs. Levinstein, Ltd. 



In his Presidential Address at the annual meeting of the Science Guild on 

 June 19, Lord Sydenham referred chiefly to the problems of post-war recon- 

 struction and scientific education. He quoted (apparently on the authority of Sir 

 Robert Hadfield) some amazing statistics bearing on this latter question. The 

 total incomes of State-aided modern Universities and University Colleges in 

 England and Wales is about ,£700,000, of which 34 per cent, is derived from 

 Parliamentary grants. In Germany the corresponding figures are ,£2,000,000 and 

 80 per cent., while in America the income is ,£20,000,000, of which ,£7,000,000 is 

 at the disposal of the Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. In addition 

 to this, for each 10,000 of the population there were 16 full-time students in 

 Scotland, 13 in Germany, 10 in the U.S.A., and 5 only in England and Wales. 

 Lord Sydenham concludes that the Fisher Education Bill will at least furnish an 

 opportunity for the much-needed improvement in the education of the masses, and 

 that if only the recommendations of Sir J. J. Thomson's Committee were grafted 

 on to it, there would follow a great increase in the number of science students. 



It appears that New Zealand is the only one of the larger self-governing 

 Dominions which has not yet set up any machinery for the State Organisation of 

 Scientific and Industrial Research. This seems to be due largely to the fact that 

 the Government has not yet realised the important bearing this matter will have 

 on the future welfare of the industries of the country. At the request of the 

 Minister of Internal Affairs, a report has been drawn up by G. Hogben, Esq., C.M.G., 

 and Dr. J. Allan Thomson, summarising the schemes adopted in the other parts 

 of the Empire, and also the suggestions which have been put forward as to the 

 procedure which should be adopted in New Zealand. Their report shows that 

 the New Zealand Institute, the Board of Science and Art, the General Council ol 

 Education, and the Wellington Philosophical Society are all in practical agree- 

 ment as to the steps which should be taken. They urge the Government to set 

 up a National Advisory Council on Research, or a Board of Science and Industry, 

 which should encourage and co-ordinate scientific and industrial research in the 

 Dominion, and advise the Council of Education as to the lines along which a 

 general improvement in scientific education could be brought about. On the 

 industrial side there appears to be, in particular, need for more trained hydro- 

 electric engineers, and also for methods whereby the agricultural produce of the 

 country may be brought into closer touch with the markets of the world. 



One material result of this activity in the Dominion has been the publication 

 of the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology issued under the authority 

 of the Minister of Internal Affairs. It is intended primarily as a means of 

 publishing in a collected form such departmental papers and reports as may, 

 in the opinion of the Board of Science and Art, deserve permanent record. 

 (Long papers, which cannot conveniently be published in the Journal, will, in 

 future, be issued as Bulletins, numbered consecutively from 1 upwards.) In 

 addition, however, the Journal will contain a certain number of more popular 

 articles, so that it may appeal to a wide circle of readers and "focus the more 

 favourable attitude to science created by the war." As far as it is possible to 

 iudge from the first two numbers of the Journal (Jan. and March 1918) it will 

 contain a collection of papers which should afford valuable assistance to the 





