SCIENCE, AND), INDUSTRY. 
large supplies of charcoal alone was a commercial proposition. “ Our 
forests contain untold chemical wealth,” continued the Minister, “ and it 
remains for the Forest Service to discover and make it available to the 
community. . . . We are merely on the verge of discovery, and, 
looking to the future, it behoves the community to aim at conservation of” 
its natural resources lest it kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.” ~ 
INTERNATIONAL TESTING ASSOCIATION. 
A representative Conference was held on the 5th June, 1919, at’ the 
Institution of Civil Engineers, London, to consider the question of the: 
formation of a new Association to take the. place of the International 
Association for Testing Materials, which has practically ceased to exist: 
in consequence of the war. The former International Association had: 
its origin in a Conference of a small group of workers in experimental 
engineering held in Munich in 1882. Its objects as set forth in the by- 
laws were—‘ The development and unification of standard methods of 
testing; the examination of the technically: important properties; of 
materials of construction and other materials of practical value, and, 
also the perfecting of apparatus used for this purpose.” It is now, 
proposed to establish a new Association which will be international, in. 
the sense of including representatives of the Allied and neutral nations. ; 
The Conference could not agree on fixing any definite time limit during, 
which German representatives should be excluded from the new Associa-. 
tion. It was finally decided to leave the, matter over for the present, 
and to establish, in the first place, a British Association which would in, 
due course become part of an International Association. ' 
Professor W. C. Unwin has promised to keep the Institute in touch 
with any progress made. The Institute is not able for the present to, 
_take any active steps in co-operating in the movement, but it is hoped. 
that the proposed Australian Engineering Standardization Association ; 
will do so as soon at it is established. ) 
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS IN QUEENSLAND. 
The Institute has received through the Queensland State Committee 
an offer by the Queensland Acclimatization Society to co-operate in 
experimental work, especially in the cultivation, hybridization and- 
introduction of new varieties of cotton, flax, and castor oil plants. ‘The’ 
Society possesses a freehold property of over 100 acres of land at: 
Lawnton, on the North Pine River, about 15 miles from Brisbane, and 
the permanent staff consists of Mr. R. W. Peters, Director and 
Hybridist, and Mr. O. W. Houghton, Propagator. The revenue of the 
Society from its investments it not sufficient to.enable it to carry; on 
without supplementing it from other sources, and this is done by propa-: 
gating plants for sale. This work, however, encroaches on the time of 
the staff, so that it has been found impracticable to devote much atten- 
tion to the more legitimate objects of the Society. With a small assured . 
income, in addition: to that already available, the Society would be able: 
to devote a considerable amount of attention to the more scientific side., 
of the work. |. ‘ eee Rie 
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