354 



NA TURE 



[September 9, 1922 



Railway Problems of Australia. 

 The presidential address to Section G (Engineering), 

 by Prof. T. Hudson Beare, was on " Railway Problems 

 in Australia." Tun great problems have to be faced 

 by the Commonwealth — (1) the unification of the 

 existing railway gauges, and (2) the joining up of 

 the tropical areas of Northern Australia by a system 

 of railways linking up with the railway systems of 

 the southern and eastern areas of the continent. 



(1) The first is a problem which has been prominent 

 sini ' [888 ; up to the present no satisfactory solution 

 lias been found. Various Royal Commissions have 

 inquired into the matter, and the only point which 

 has been definitely settled is that the standard gauge 

 shall be 4 ft. 8£ in. In 192 1 a Royal Commission 

 made two proposals — (1) to convert the main railway 

 system connecting the various capitals from Fremantle 

 to Brisbane to a uniform 4 ft. 8i in. gauge, the length 

 of track being somewhere about 3300 miles, the 

 estimated cost of conversion and of the necessary new 

 lines being ig. 000. 000/.. which would be increased to a 

 total of 21,500,000/. if all the 5 ft. 3 in. lines in 

 Victoria and South Australia were simultaneously 

 converted to 4 ft. 8J in. ; (2) to convert the whole 

 Australian railway system to 4 ft. 8J- in. — this the 

 Commission estimated would cost about 57.000.000Z., 

 but this estimate has not been accepted by the State 

 railway authorities, and the Premier of South Australia 

 at a recent conference stated that he was of opinion 

 that the total cost would not be far short of 100,000,000/. 

 sterling. If some mechanical device for overcoming 

 the brcak-of-gauge difficulties could be evolved, the 

 need for the expenditure of this enormous sum would 

 be postponed to a period when it is to be hoped costs 

 nl 1 1 instructional work would be greatly reduced. 



(2) When the Commonwealth took over the Northern 

 Territory from the State of South Australia on January 

 1, 191 1, an agreement was entered into between the 

 Commonwealth and the South Australian Govern- 

 ment to the effect that the Commonwealth Govern- 

 ment should construct a north-south railway connect- 

 ing Port Darwin with Adelaide. It was agreed to 

 construct a railway line from a point on the Port 

 Darwin and Pine Creek railway southwards to a point 

 on the northern boundary of South Australia proper, 

 and a railway northward from a point on the Port 

 Augusta and Oodnadatta railway to connect with the 

 other portion of the line at a point on the northern 

 boundary of South Australia proper. Up to the present 

 no definite steps have been taken to carry out this agree- 

 ment . but the Commonwealth Joint Standing Committee 

 of Public Works last year appointed a sub-committee 

 tn investigate the country of this route and to take 

 evidence. The Commonwealth Engineer lor Ways 

 and Works submitted two alternative transcontinental 

 routes : (a) a direct north-south line with the necessary 

 bram fies to connect it with the Queensland railways, 

 estimated cost about 16.000.000/.. and (b) the eastern 

 route, estimated cost about 14,300,000/., to which 

 must lie added an additional sum of about 1,500.000/. 

 if the existing 3 ft. 6 in. line from Port Augusta 

 to Oodnadatta was extended to Alice Springs in order 

 to open u]i the McDonnel Range country for closer 

 settlement. The urgency lor a prompt decision in 

 regard to the route of the north-south line is brought 



NO. 2758, VOL. I IO] 



out by the fact that at the present time the journey 

 by sea from Brisbane, the nearest State capital, to 

 Darwin takes longer than the sea voyage from Darwin 

 to Singapore or Hong-Kong, a perilous state of things 

 to the Commonwealth in certain contingencies which 

 need not be more emphasised but are obvious to all 

 who are fighting so strongly for the white Australia 

 policy. 



The Study of Man. 



In his presidential address to Section II (Anthro- 

 pology) Mr. Harold Peake said that during the 

 last twelve years an anthropological school has arisen, 

 which regards different groups of men as following, 

 not one single path of evolution, but various routes 

 according to their environment. This view has 

 brought the anthropologist more closely into touch 

 with the geographer, who has thereby become more 

 human and less factual, has interested the sociologist 

 and the economist, has infected many classical scholars, 

 and may even wean the historian from a too exclusive 

 stud) - of kings and politicians. Anthropology may be 

 defined as " the study of the origin and evolution of 

 man and his works." As such it must be psychological 

 as well as physical, dynamic rather than static. Nor 

 must it be limited to the study of backward peoples, 

 but extended to such civilised peoples as those of 

 the Far East and Hindustan. We have much informa- 

 tion concerning the arts, languages, and official religions 

 of these regions ; too little concerning the physical 

 and mental traits of their " masses," their customs 

 and actual beliefs. Such ignorance leads to constant 

 misunderstanding and friction, as, for example, in 

 India, and this can be removed only by giving our 

 rulers there some training in anthropology. The 

 British Schools at Rome and Athens have been of 

 enormous value in establishing friendly relations. Let 

 there be a British School in India, endowed by private 

 benefactors of both races, to act as an anthropological 

 centre from which would radiate a truer understanding 

 of the ideals of both civilisations. The need for similar 

 institutions in the European region is painfully manifest. 

 It is, in fact, the spirit if not the detailed facts of 

 anthropology which seem most likely to lead to that 

 breadth of view and deeper sympathy which humanity 

 requires. We need this not abroad alone : we have 

 in these islands, as the result of successive invasions, 

 various rates, each with peculiarities of outlook which 

 still had t" friction. These the anthropologist must 

 study lor the sake, not of knowledge only, but also 

 for the sake of peace. 



The Efficiency of Man and the Factors 

 which influence it. 



In his presidential address to Section I (Physiologj ) 

 Prof. Cathcart, after a brief discussion of the mean- 

 ing of the term efficiency, in which he differentiated 

 mechanical and industrial efficiency, went on to 

 emphasise the intimate relation which exists between 

 the efficiency of man in the physiological and industrial 

 sense. There was a tendency to lay too much stress on 

 organisation and machinery ; to forget the fact that 

 no matter what mechanical improvements were evolved 

 man was always behind the machine, and that, therefore, 



