Atmometer or Atmidometer

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

an instrument used in the measurement of evaporation. re- Few countries AUSTRALIA. covered so quickly from the economic depression and confusion which followed the World War as did Australia. The most urgent problem before the government became the encouragement of immigration to help in the labor of developing the country. An agreement was made with the British Government to assist immigration from the British Isles and another was entered into with with Italy to encourage Italian agriculturalists to take up unsettled Australian lands. The excess of arrivals over departures in the ten-year period 1911-1921 amounted to only 149,919, while in spite of bonuses to encourage large families, the birthrate had fallen from 44 per thousand in 1860 to half of that figure in the later period. The total population of Australia at the end of 1921 was 5,510,229, being an increase of about 20 per cent over 1911. The Australian federal elections of December, 1922, gave the Labor Party the largest number of seats in the new House of Representatives. Labor Party, 29, a gain of four seats; National Party, 27, a loss of eleven; Liberal and Country Parties, 19, a gain of seven seats. Premier Hughes resigned February 2, 1923, to permit the formation of a coalition government supported by the Nationalists and the Country Party. He was succeeded by Stanley M. Bruce, former commonwealth treasurer. AUSTRIA. Desperate financial and economic conditions threatened the continuance of Austria as a separate state in 1922. Dr. Ignatius Seipl, appointed Chancellor in May, made a round of visits to the capitals of Czecho-Slovakia, Germany, and Italy, and suggestions were of impending union one these countries. An appeal to the League of Nations, however, brought about a plan of financial relief (September by which Austria was enabled 27, 1922) to obtain a loan guaranteed by France, England, Italy, and Czecho-Slovakia. The plan involved control of disbursements by a finance commission under the League, the guarantor states undertaksovereignty, political ing to respect the independence, and territorial integrity of Austria, while the latter bound herself not to alienate her independence. Nearly all nations with claims against Austria, including the United States of America, agreed to waive them for twenty years. Dr. Zimmerman, former mayor of Rotterdam, was appointed Commissioner General of Austria in behalf of the League. Relief work on a large scale continued to be necessary. Up to March, 1922, the American Relief Administration had furnished meals in excess of 200 million to Austrian children. Beside assisting 145 local organizations in their work, it was feeding directly 175,000 children and almost 20,000 others, chiefly students, teachers, members of the hard-pressed professional classes, and the sick.