11. SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



the entire expense of publishing our first volume, a most pleasing 

 sign of official recognition for so young an Association to receive, 

 and one which the other Governments have acquiesced in following. 

 Last year Lord Milner was with us when our second President, Sir 

 Charles Metcalfe, delivered his address in Johannesburg; and the 

 Transvaal Government not only granted the sum asked for towards 

 publishing our second volume of proceedings, but took the initiative 

 in approaching the other Governments, who jointly provided the 

 funds for our special volume on the present state of science in South 

 Africa. As you were informed by circular, His Excellency the 

 Lieutenant-Governor of the Transvaal, the Hon. Sir Arthur Lawlev, 

 had kindly consented to be present this evening. It is a keen 

 disappointment to us all that at the last moment he has been com- 

 pelled to cancel his engagement, but this disappointment is entirely 

 overshadowed by the grief we feel at permanently losing one whose 

 eloquent advocacy on so many occasions of the cause of science and 

 learning is not the least of the great services he has rendered this 

 Colonv. 



In addition to the matters mentioned in the annual report, a 

 number of projects have engaged the attention of your Council during 

 the past year, several of which, no doubt, will l)e regarded as of more 

 than local interest, and well worthy of ])eing made the sul)ject of a 

 whole evening's discourse. Among these are : a Botanic Garden and 

 Arboi'etum for the Transvaal, to he managed purely as a Government 

 institution ; a Forest School for South Africa, which would be the only 

 one in the Eastern Hemisphere dealing with extra-tropical forestry and 

 imparting its instruction in English; a Military College; a system of 

 apprenticeships in connection with continuation and night-schools ; 

 the encouragement of nature study and science teaching in schools ; a 

 permanent museum for Johannesbuig; an annual conference of public 

 librarians and curators of museums, and larger public grants to all 

 such educational institutions ; the systematic collection or preserva- 

 tion of objects of scientific and historic interest; the investigation of 

 freshwater fishes and other forms of aquatic life in the interior of the 

 country ; a series of memoirs on men of science and other South 

 African worthies ; a scheme of university extension lectures ; and a 

 Royal Society of South Africa. I mention these matters to show 

 how wide a field is open for your future deliberations, and for all the 

 energies at your disposal. 



The year 1905 will always be memorable in the history of South 

 Africa on account of the visit of the British Association. The whole 

 story of the inception of the idea that such a visit was feasible, of 

 the lengthy negotiations which led to its being finally entertained, 

 and of the manner in which, by the co-operation of all classes of 

 the community, that visit was carried out to a final successful issue, 

 will be partly recorded in the next forthcoming annual volume of the 

 British Association's proceedings, but is sure to be further told 

 from many different points of view, in many different languages, in 

 all the various forms of publication, from grave to gay, which the 

 modern Press has devised. I cannot refrain, however, from reading 



