880 REPORT—1896. 
supplies are driven into towns to compete with wage-earners there, or to emigrate, 
and thus their services are lost to the country. Three important remedies :— 
First: That rents should be adjusted in accordance with the prices, and that 
permanent improvements executed by the tenantry should be secured to them. 
Second: That all city refuse be returned to the soil to restore fertility. This is 
being done in Glasgow at a profit, details of which are given in the paper. 
Government ought to assist in making this universal. ‘The fertilising matter at 
resent cremated, or thrown into the sea, is a national loss, and could be turned 
into a national gain. Third: A national system of reclamation of all suitable 
tidal wastes, to provide virgin soil and marsh pastures, so that the raw material 
now necessary for successful agriculture be kept up. Some details of what has been 
accomplished in Scotland and Holland are given. In the event of war, the limited 
supply of home produce and steady increase of population in this country are 
regarded as serious, and ought to be provided for, 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. Metric Measures and our Old System. By F. Toms. 
The metric system of weights and measures will doubtless be legalised in this 
country before long. But, admirable as this system is for scientific purposes and 
large commercial transactions, the decimal divisions are not well adapted to the 
small dealings which prevail among the less educated portion of the community, 
who form the great mass of the British nation. In legalising the new code, how- 
ever, there is no need to sweep away the method now in force, as the two systems 
may be combined, and the retention of old forms will make our untaught popula- 
tion familiar with new principles. 
Our English measures may be made to accord with the French by dividing 
the metre into eleven equal parts and taking ten of those parts as the basis of 
our yard. The divisions and multiples of our old system could be retained as 
heretofore, the oniy difference being that inches, feet, yards, furlongs, &c., would 
all be reduced by a small fraction (-006). ‘lhis done, the metres would be 
exactly converted into yards when multiplied hy 1:1, and yards would be con- 
verted into metres when divided by 1:1. At the same time, the complications of 
our present land measures would be simplified. 
A somewhat similar course might be taken with weights and measures of 
capacity—old names being applied to new equivalents. If half a kilogramme be 
taken as the new pound, and half a dekaiitre as the new gallon, their divisious 
and multiples would follow the same course as that now in vogue, and retezin the 
same nomenclature. 
2. Comparison of the Age-Distribution of Town and Country Population 
in Different Lands. By A. W. Fuux, IA. 
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. Mercantile Markets for ‘ Futures” By Evisan Hem. 
Origin and purpose of dealings in ‘Futures’ in the commercial markets— 
Utility of the system to industry and commerce—It constitutes a method of 
insurance to producers and distributors against the risks of fluctuating prices—Its 
