252 
NATURE 
[NovEMBER 30, 1916 
Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, Vice-Chancellor of the 
University of Sheffield. 
Prof. W. G. Adams, Gladstone Professor of 
Political Theory and Institutions in the University 
of Oxford. 
The secretary to the Committee is Mr. D. B. 
Mair, Civil Service Commission, Burlington 
Gardens, W. 
The Royal Commission on the Civil Service 
recommended in 1914 the appointment of a com- 
mittee of this kind to ascertain whether there is 
any substantial foundation for the view that the 
scheme of examination for Class If. clerkships 
unduly favours the curricula of the older universi- 
ties and handicaps those of the newer. It was 
suggested that, should it be found that any 
change is desirable, the Committee, while main- 
taining the high standard necessary for the 
examination, should revise and rearrange the 
syllabus, weighing the educational value of 
classical learning against those of modern and 
scientific studies. It will be remembered that the 
need for change in the present system of allo- 
cating marks, by which a premium is placed upon 
knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages and 
literature, was one of the main subjects brought 
forward at the meeting on “The Neglect of 
Science ” held in May last (see Nature, May 11, 
Pp. 230). 
In connection with this matter, particular 
interest attaches to the appeal recently addressed 
by the Institution of German Engineers to the 
Chancellor, Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, a 
translation of which was published in the Times 
Educational Supplement of November 23. The 
appeal, which urged that steps should be talcen 
to extend the avenues of admission to the higher 
posts in the German Civil Service, with 
especial regard to graduates completing their 
courses of study at the technical high schools, 
will be read with deep interest and not without 
surprise. Having regard to the important part 
which science in its various applications has 
played in the manufacturing and economic de- 
velopment of Germany, it might have been ex- 
pected that its claims to due recognition as an 
essential factor in the equipment of men destined 
for high administrative posts in the Civil Service 
would long ago have been fully admitted. The 
many and new problems evolved by the war have 
demanded the services of the best intellects in 
various departments of life, and, in the opinion of 
the Institution of German Engineers, made mani- 
fest that much more than a merely legal or 
classical training is essential to the effective 
staffing of the service. It is admitted by the Ger- 
man Government that “the training of the higher 
Civil Service does not correspond with the require- 
ments of the day,’’ but such is the force of tradi- 
tion that, despite years of debate and agitation, 
the reform is yet to seek alike in Germany and 
with us. : 
It is obviously not a matter of importance to us 
in this country whether or not the German Civil 
Service is thrown open to duly qualified scientific 
men, but it is interesting to note that a nation, 
NO. 2457, VOL. 98] 
whose advent to the front rank of industry and 
commerce is due almost entirely to its devotion 
to science in its various economic aspects and to 
the encouragement given to research and to the 
establishment of schools of high rank for this 
purpose, should shut out from its highest ad- 
ministrative posts the very men best calculated 
by their training to enhance the position it has 
gained. It is not only in industry and com- 
merce, but in every department of civil life, that 
science is playing an increasingly important part 
in the well-being of the community, and therefore 
demands the trained scientific mind in the adminis- 
trator and the knowledge and sympathy essential 
to the successful treatment required for the right 
solution of the complex problems of our time, both 
domestic and imperial. If it be true that Germany 
suffers so much from this want of recognition of 
her ablest intellects devoted to science and its 
applications, how much more must it be true of 
us with far greater responsibilities and where our 
higher Civil Service has for generations been 
recruited almost exclusively from a few public 
schools through the classical and mathematical 
sides of the ancient universities with which they 
are associated. 
POSSIBLE POTASSIC FERTILISERS. 
a view of the present serious shortage of 
potassic fertilisers, great efforts are being 
made to find new sources of supply. A possible 
source has been indicated by Sir Thomas Mac- 
kenzie in a recent issue of the Times. It appears 
that South Island, New Zealand, possesses ex- 
tensive deposits of a mica schist containing on an 
average 3 per cent. of potash; the material is 
soft—indeed, it is said to be the easiest mineral 
to mine in the whole world. Over great areas it 
lies on the surface and simply has to be picked 
up, while when it requires to be blasted it shatters 
so easily that a single charge will blow out tons 
at once. When brought to the mill it grinds 
down very easily; indeed, much of it is already 
broken up and already lies in a state of powder. 
Mr. Aston, the chemist to the New Zealand 
Department of Agriculture, writes enthusiastically 
about the deposit, stating that at Otago alone 
there are literally millions of tons of pure potash 
to the square mile; while Mr. A. D. Bell, another 
New Zealand chemist, goes so far as to say that 
these new deposits may reduce the famous Stass- 
furt mines, On which the world entirely depends 
at present, to the relative importance of a “bottle 
of potash on a druggist’s shelf.” This view, how- 
ever, is controverted by Prof. Wyndham Dunstan, 
who states that there is not in view any deposit 
of potash in any country of the Empire compar- 
able in nature, extent, or value with those of 
Stassfurt. 
Agriculturists will want to know what is the 
fertilising value of the new deposit, as they have 
learned by experience that chemical analysis some- 
times overrates minerals as fertilisers. The 
ordinary potassic fertilisers are the sulphate, 
which is very soluble and available, and contains 
