FEBRUARY 8, 1901. ] 
Mr. C. COLERIIDGE FARR, in charge of mag- 
netic work in New Zealand, has sent a letter 
to the editor of Terrestrial Magnetism in regard 
to the magnetic observatory soon to be erected 
at Christchurch, approximately in latitude 43° 
30’ S., and longitude 172° 387 EK. New Zealand 
will owe this observatory to the labors of a 
committee, of which Mr. Farr is secretary, ap- 
pointed at the beginning of last year by the Aus- 
tralasian Association for the Advancement of 
Science. It will be the most southerly observa- 
tory in the world and will have an ideal situa- 
tion in a magnetically uniform district, except 
for the possibility of disturbance by electric 
tramways, which, however, is not likely to oc- 
cur, for some years and may be prevented alto- 
gether by legislation. It is hoped that the ob- 
servatory will be in operation by the end of 
this year. Dr. Chree has undertaken the su- 
pervision of the construction of the magneto- 
graphs by Adie. Mr. Farr invites the various 
Antarctic expeditions that are soon to leave 
Europe to make any use they care to of the ob- 
servatory, and expresses his willingness to give 
magnetic information or any other assistance. 
The Lyttelton Harbor Board has offered dock 
accommodatian to the British National Expe- 
dition, and Mr. Farr thinks would doubtless 
extend the same courtesy of other expeditions. 
Another result of the labors of the above-men- 
tioned committee is a small appropriation by 
Parliament to carry out some sort of magnetic 
survey of New Zealand. The Kew Observatory 
Committee has aided the work by the loan of a 
set of absolute instruments, with which obser- 
vations have so far been made at 100 stations, 
chiefly in the middle island. In this Mr. Farr 
was ably assisted by Mr. H. F. Skey. 
THE British Medical Journal reports that in 
the Budget of the Italian Minister of the Interior 
there will be included a sum of money for the 
prosecution of the campaign against malaria, 
which has already been begun in various parts 
of Italy under the influence of the experiments 
of Professors Celli and Grassi. This money 
will be devoted by the Government to the carry- 
ing out of new experiments and the establish- 
ment of prizes. The Italian parliament has 
before it a bill for the prevention of malaria, by _ 
which it would be made compulsory on all em- 
SCIENCE. 239 
ployers of labor in malarial districts to make 
provision for the lodging of laborers with proper 
precautions against infection in accordance with 
the present state of knowledge. They would 
further be compelled to supply remedies gra- 
tuitously to laborers who contract the disease 
until they have recovered their health. They 
would also have to build suitable dwellings for 
their laborers and proper lodging places for 
casual hands, all properly protected against 
malaria. Loans at 3} per eent. would be ad- 
vanced out of the public funds to small pro- 
prietors in order to enable them to comply with 
the obligations placed upon them by the bill. 
There is a clause exempting from taxation for 
twenty-five years new buildings erected for 
industrial purposesin malarial regions. Another 
clause provides that indemnities at fixed rates 
are to be paid to sick laborers and to their 
families by employers who fail to comply with 
the requirements of the bill. 
THE Hvening Post states that in consequence 
of the growth of German trade and commerce 
in all parts of the world, the German Emperor 
has decided to establish an institute for the 
study of oceanology, in Berlin, in connection 
with a naval museum. Both are to be part of 
the Berlin University, and will serve as an 
academy for naval instruction on the most 
modern system and in the widest sense of the 
word. One of the main objects is the instruc- 
tion, not only of students in the subjects dealt 
with, but of all persons interested in them, in- 
cluding ships’ captains, ship-owners, merchants, 
ete. The museum will be formed on a very 
large scale, the Emperor having ordered that 
all the naval collections at Wilhelmshaven, 
Dantzic, Kiel, and Hamburg shall be brought 
to Berlin, as well as all special collections in 
other museums, and the greater part of the 
German naval section exhibited in Paris last 
year. The Emperor has allotted two hundred 
and fifty thousand Marks for this purpose, and 
the Prussian Landtag has also made an appro- 
priation. Though the institutions are still in 
course of formation, a series of free public 
lectures on oceanology, etc., by several of the 
leading German professors will be started 
at once. The program includes lectures on 
‘History and the Influence of Navigation,’ 
