EDITORIAL. 
convince local potters and brickmakers of the advisability of using some 
form of temperature indicator in their kilns. The work, which was 
originally projected, having been completed, a final report is NOW being 
prepared. In connexion with this work, the Western Australia 
Government and the Institute is each finding a moiety of the cost. 
PROHIBITIVE IMPORT DUTY ON LITERATURE CONTAINING 
ADVERTISEMENTS. 
Uneasiness, amounting almost to alarm, has been caused in science 
circles by the rumour that the Commonwealth Government intends to 
impose a prohibitive duty on literature which contains advertisements. 
Such a course, it is felt, would seriously handicap scientific workers in 
Australia, as they are assisted largely by the developments of research 
in other countries. The Royal Society of New South Wales has taken 
up the matter, and has asked the Institute of Science and Industry 
to press for the abandonment of the proposal. In a letter to the 
executive it pointed out that such restrictions will have the effect of 
shutting out many valuable books and periodicals from Australia, and, 
therefore, will act in a most injurious way towards the progress of 
education and science in the Commonwealth without conferring any 
compensating benefit. The circulation of publications issued in Great 
Britain, Europe, and America is, of course, considerable, but the 
volume of it which reaches Australia is such a small percentage of the 
whole that publishers would not think of deleting advertisements simply 
for the extremely small advantage of maintaining Australian trade. 
Under present conditions the cost of books is very heavy, and scientific 
bodies have an extensive system of exchanges. The effect, therefore,. 
would be to starve the Australian libraries, and reduce their value in a 
most disastrous manner. 
VALUE OF TECHNICAL ADVERTISEMENTS. 
There are other aspects of a proposal such as this. Apart from 
the knowledge contained in the articles of scientific publications, there 
is often considerable ‘practical value in the advertisements which 
appear. Both science and industry would receive serious hurt if 
restrictions were placed upon the circulation of technical journals. 
Many a subscriber looks to the advertising columns for helpful sugges- 
tions, and new ideas, and he employs these in the advancement of his 
business, and consequently for the furtherance of Australian trade. 
To regard advertisements simply as an enticement to buy a foreign- 
made article is wrong. Our manufacturers frequently adapt an idea 
so gained from the advertising columns of a trade journal to their own 
requirements, and the Australian engineer who gets the resultant order 
shares the benefit. (The executive committee of the advisory council, 
when the letter of the Royal Society of New South Wales came under 
their notice, expressed the opinion that not only would work in all 
fields of scientific research in Australia be retarded, but that technical 
and manufacturing industries of the Commonwealth would also 
materially suffer if such a proposal were given effect to. 
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