2o8 



NATURE 



[December i6, 1909 



out the best men ; but in the circumstances of the present 

 time it seems impossible to find a substitute. 



A Reutek message from Brisbane states that tlie cere- 

 mony of the dedication of Government House buildings as 

 the home of Queensland University was performed on 

 December lo by Sir W. MacGregor, the Governor of 

 Queensland. Sir W. MacGregor read a message from the 

 King congratulating tlie people of Queensland and express- 

 ing the hope that the enterprise and loyalty which have 

 marked the first fifty years of the existence of Queensland 

 may be an abiding heritage, and that the prosperity of 

 the State will be multiplied abundantly in years to come. 

 The Governor said that he was gratified at participating 

 in a gathering of such importance, establishing as it did 

 the corner-stone of a system of State education. In no 

 other country can the pursuits of professional and economic 

 life be followed to greater advantage than in Queensland, 

 which has an extraordinary multiplicity of resources. The 

 university course includes arts, without unduly encroaching 

 upon more modern developments of direct utility. The 

 plan of the Universitv is an elastic one, and capable of un- 

 limited expansion. Sir W. MacGregor assented, on behalf 

 of the King, to the University Bill, and unveiled a tablet 

 dedicating the building. The gift was accepted on behalf 

 of the people by Mr. Bell, the Speaker of the Legislative 

 Assembly. .Speeches were also delivered by Profs. David, 

 of Sydney, and Stirling, of Adelaide Universities. Mr. 

 Kidston announced that 50,000!. has been set aside for 

 initial expenditure and lo.oooZ. annually for working 

 expenses, and there will be sixty foundation scholarships. 



A RECENT report to the Middlesex Education Committee 

 by its secretary and inspector of schools provides particulars 

 concerning an experiment in operation in Strassburg on 

 employment bureaux for children of school-leaving age. 

 In Strassburg the education authorities work in conjunction 

 with the labour bureaux and the employers. k card is 

 handed to the child on leaving school, which, when filled 

 up, contains all particulars necessary for intending 

 employers. This information is supplied by the parents, 

 the headmaster, and the medical officer. It is obvious that 

 little can be done without the cooperation of employers of 

 labour. Most Strassburg employers now prefer to engage 

 a bov through the bureau, as they are able at a glance 

 to obtain a fair estimate of his capabilities from trust- 

 worthy sources, and are in this way safeguarded from 

 emoloyinf one who mav be unequal to the work required. 

 When a boy is engaged the date is noted, and a record of 

 his career as an employee is kept by the bureau, and this 

 is of great benefit to future employers. The success of 

 this scheme has justified the experiment. Every year a 

 large percentage of children of both sexes find suitable 

 employment in this way. Parents, employers, teachers, and 

 apprentices all speak highly of the scheme. The bureau 

 does not confine its attention to children only, but deals 

 with adults, and is part of a widely spread system, with 

 branches in many parts of Germany as well as in other 

 European countries, and has enabled the authorities to find 

 employment for .a large percentage of applicants. The 

 bureau being in direct telephonic communication with every 

 other centre, an applicant is found work in the shortest 

 possible time. With a complete record of a man's career 

 there is little risk of imposture, and no hesitation is made 

 in advancing the railway fare to his work in other towns 

 when necessary. 



The prizes and certificates at the Northampton Poly- 

 technic Institute were distributed on December 10 by Sir 

 John Wolfe-Barry, K.C.B., who in the course of his 

 address spoke of technical education as scientific instruc- 

 tion in the useful arts. It was not, he remarked, until 

 about 1870 that we began to realise that all was not well 

 with the trade of England and with English methods. 

 At that period primary education was at a very low ebb, 

 and scientific education was in the possession of very few. 

 Technical education for the masses was unknown, and was 

 scarcely desired. The late Prince Consort played a 

 prominent part in rousing the country to the necessity of 

 altering its methods and fostering technical education. In 

 1877 the City and Guilds of London Institute led the way 

 in a systematic manner in developing the new movement. 



NO. 2094, "VOL. 82] 



Since they put their hands to the plough they have spent 

 8oo,oooi. of their own property, and are still spending at 

 the rate of from 23,000/. to 25,000!. a year in developing 

 the movement which they set on foot more than thirty 

 years ago, which has materialised into the Central Tech- 

 nical College at South Kensington, the Finsbury Technical 

 Instituic, and their art school at Kennington. Turning to 

 the work of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, Sir 

 John Wolfe-Barry gave the history of its development from 

 its initiation some fifteen years ago. After referring to 

 the assistance given by the City Parochial Foundation, the 

 Skinners' Company, and the Saddlers' Company, he 

 emphasised the debt which it owes to the London County 

 Council. Dealing specially with the subject of technical 

 optics, he expressed the hope that the much delayed 

 development would be proceeded with before another year 

 had passed, for such development would deal with an 

 important branch of a scientific trade, and a trade in 

 which we ought more than to hold our own with foreign 

 competitors. Returning to the general subject of technical 

 education, he indicated its limitations, and showed how 

 one of its chief objects is to enlarge the army of scientific 

 workers, and thus to enlarge the area from which the 

 leaders and generals of industrial life are to be drawn, 

 tending thus to substitute intelligent methods for the rule 

 of thumb and to make man less and less an animated 

 machine. Technical instruction, he concluded, must follow 

 the abstract sciences, and not attempt to limit them. In 

 the course of the evening the head of the mechanical 

 engineering department, Mr. C. E. Larard, gave a lecture 

 on the twisting of materials to destruction. He directed 

 attention to a remarkable testing machine which has been 

 installed in his department, and embodied in his lecture the 

 results of his researches on the behaviour of various quali- 

 ties of steel when twisted to destruction. By means of this 

 machine specimens of steel up to 3J inches in diameter can 

 readily be twisted to destruction. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 

 Geological Society, December r. — I'rnf. W. T. Sollas, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — W. G. Fearnsides : The 

 Tremadoc slates and associated rocks of south-east 

 Carnarvonshire. Results obtained in making a detailed 

 map of the country about Portmadoc, Tremadoc, and 

 Criccieth in Carnarvonshire, and a description of the strati- 

 graphy of the Cambrian and Ordovician rocks there ex- 

 posed. The sedimentary series are described in the order 

 of their formation. The succession is tabulated. The fold- 

 ing, cleavage, faulting, and jointing of the rocks are 

 described, and an attempt is made to show some relation- 

 .ship between the stress-phenomena which have produced 

 these structures. The great fault through Penmorfa is 

 interpreted as a thrust-plane hading gently to the north- 

 east. It is supposed to form the lowest sole of the group 

 of thrust-planes which follow the southern margin of the 

 Snowdonian mountain-tract. The well-known pisolitic 

 iron ore of Tremadoc is shown to follow the line of this 

 fault. Direct evidence of overthrusting has been got from 

 a study of the graptolite-bearing Llandeilo rocks of Tyddyn- 

 dicwm, which have been exposed in two artificial trenches 

 dug for the purpose, and the distribution of the andesitic 

 volcanic .series in lines of detached lenticles among the 

 Grey Slates is described as evidence of a similar re-dupli- 

 cation of the newer rock-series of the north-eastern district 

 on a more extended scale. It is noted that the dolerites 

 are (i) unaffected by cleavage and faulting, and (2) have 

 metamorphosed rocks which were already cleaved, cut, and 

 re-duplicated by the thrust-faulting at the time of their 

 intrusion. The Glacial and post-Glacial accumulations are 

 also described in outline. — E. S. Cobbold : Some small 

 trilobites from the Cambrian rocks of Comley (Shropshire). 

 Most of the trilobites were obtained during the progress of 

 the excavations referred to in the report of the Geological 

 Excavations Committee of the British Association, read at 

 the Dublin meeting, iqoS. The specimens were derived 

 from the Olenellus Limestone of Comley, and from the 

 Grey Limestones which intervene between that horizon and 



