PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. ^ 



ology, all these subjects have had a fair share of Government 

 attention and Government funds. When we look closer, how- 

 ever, we see things that cannot fail to awaken regret. A 

 Government Department for Topography has long been in 

 operation, but money for the higher classes of work has been 

 scanty, and consequently a detailed and thoroughly accurate 

 map of the Colony is still a long way off. Geology, after years 

 of extravagant expenditure on temporary experts, was en- 

 trusted in 1895 to a Government Commission, and since then 

 has been an illustrative model of the good to be derived from 

 pursuing the policy just indicated. Zoology has been left to 

 the Museums and private workers, and, all circumstances con- 

 sidered, has not suffered as an outcast might. Botany has had 

 the same fate, although the votes of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment would seem to indicate that it is more of a favourite. 

 There we find a small sum set down for the upkeep of a her- 

 barium, another small sum for the furtherance of the Flora 

 Copcnsis, and, by comparison, a surprisingly large sum for the 

 maintenance of Botanic Gardens. The latter purpose is alto- 

 gether praiseworthy from our Association's point of view, but 

 one fears to learn how small a contribution to science the said 

 gardens make. If the total sum voted, which is a thousand 

 pounds more than is spent by the Government on Geology, 

 had been set apart for the advancement of Botany on the same 

 conditions, the progress of the subject would have been very 

 different to-day. As regards Meteorology, the last of the five, 

 one finds it hard to speak with patience, so persistently has 

 it been starved. Possibly this is in part explained by its dis- 

 association from the Department — the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment — which might naturally have taken an interest in it : but 

 whatever the reason, there is no doubt that nothing more 

 urgently calls for serious attention on the part of the Govern- 

 ment. 



I am reminded here that the owner of an estate does not 

 restrict himself wholly to his dry-land resources, and that there- 

 fore a sixth survey should have been included in the foregoing 

 list. This I do not deny, but by separating it from the others 

 I secure the desired advantage of additional emphasis. The 

 science with which the suggested survey is concerned — namely, 

 Marine Zoology — is not less important than any of the five 

 others, and at one time it was so viewed by the Cape Govern- 

 ment. A serious change of attitude supervened, influenced no 

 doubt by economical considerations, and the extreme step was 

 taken of practically blotting out the whole subject from the 

 Government books. I am one of those who, without knowing* 

 any of the facts of the case, feel that this was nothing less than 

 a misfortune. It is not for an instant pleaded thatthere was 

 no need for economy, or that an alternative course had been 

 suggested as possible : it is merely deplored that for any just 

 cause whatever it should have been found necessary to cut off 

 from all support — even the smallest — an agency capable under 

 due supervision of doing real good to the State. The back- 

 wardnessof the step lies in ignoring the fact that an inexpen- 

 sive continuous work is better in such cases than a liberally- 



