360 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



More than a year ago three naturalists gathered each a miscellaneous collection from 

 a Pacific Atoll ; two of these went direct to London, the third to Sydney. Not a word 

 has as yet been written on the material sent to England. A generation since Darwin 

 complained, in sorrow and surprise, that he could not secure specialists to work out the 

 results of his South American journey. To-day boundless wealth of material pours into 

 London, but what proportion of it is ever studied ? There is no lack in London of 

 material, of Pacific material, even of Funafuti material for students with an appetite for 

 work : yet is it touched ? But if a local student makes an honest attempt to further 

 the cause of science, a bitter cry arises from the British Museum specialist — defrauded 

 of his rights ! J. Douglas Ogilby. 



Livingstone Road, Petersham, Sydney, 

 25th August 1897. 



FUNAFUTI 



In the first paragraph of your review of " Australian Museum Memoir III. (on Funafuti 

 Atoll), part 2," which appeared in your July number, is a statement of your impression 

 that a stipulation had been made for the Royal Society to have the right of prior 

 publication, and that if such an agreement was not made it ought to have been. 



I am directed by the trustees of the Australian Museum to put you in possession of 

 the actual facts of the case ; and, as your statement has been made public, to request 

 that this also might be given the same prominence. 



On 7th April 1896 the Local Committee in Sydney, representing the Royal Society 

 of London, asked the trustees to nominate an officer to accompany Prof. Sollas on the 

 Expedition to Bore a Coral Reef, and Mr Charles Hedley was appointed. The trustees 

 were informed in a letter, signed by the Chairman of the Local Committee, that "in 

 regard to the secondary objects, that is, the Collection of Specimens of Natural History, 

 each member of the expedition will be at liberty to retain or exchange anything he may 

 obtain. The expedition as an undertaking, therefore, does not interfere with the col- 

 lections of [Mr Hedley]. Your trustees are thus at liberty to impose what conditions 

 they think best upon their representative in this respect." In addition to this, the 

 question of publication was raised at a meeting of the Local Committee, at which one of 

 the trustees of the Museum and the curator were present as well as Prof. Sollas, and the 

 reply was that no restriction would be placed on it. 



It will thus be seen that, in taking part in the expedition, a stipulation was 

 made beforehand for the right of publication of the results obtained by the trustees' 

 representative. 



S. Sinclair, 

 Secretary to the Trustees of the Australian Museum. 



Sydney, 8th September 1897. 



[We deeply regret that information which we had from two independent sources, 

 believed to be authoritative, should have led us to make any suggestion of unfairness on 

 the part of our friends and fellow-workers in Sydney. A correction of our error was 

 published before the various Australian protests reached us. The rest of our remarks, 

 whether of praise or blame, remain absolutely unaffected by this correction. — Ed. 

 Nat. Sci.] 



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