TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. I79 



years there was only one election to the British ParHament, when 

 the results approximately represented the relative numbers of 

 voters. 



We have seen that sectional election with the transferable 

 vote secures true representation in cases where three or more 

 members are to be elected; that it works well wherever it has 

 been tried, as in Tasmania, the Transvaal, and the South African 

 Union, making 99 per cent, of all the votes it is possible to use 

 effective in the election of members. We have described the 

 voter's part, the returning officer's work, and the two fundamental 

 rules that ensure absolute accuracy in counting. We have com- 

 pared its results with those from the present plan of voting in 

 Rhodesia, and drawn special attention to the needs of the rural 

 voter. 



We have seen how effective voting would aft'ect the voter, 

 the candidate, the member, and the country ; considered the 

 advantages of voting as one constituency for seven members, 

 and seen how it would obviate the need for redistribution, pro- 

 vide automatically for additional representation, and solve in a 

 satisfactory way the question of bye-elections. 



It would make the elected members the true rejM-esentatives 

 of the voters, place them on a footing of perfect equality with 

 the nominated members, and enable both successfully to secure 

 their common object and interest, the improvement, the welfare,, 

 and the progress of Rhodesia. 



TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES. 



RovAL Society of South Africa. — Wednesday, October i8th : F'rof. 

 H. H. W. Pearson, M.A., Sc.D., F.L.S., Vice-President, in ihe chair.— 

 " The spectrum of ruby " : Dr. J. Moir. Two additional faint spectrum 

 lines were described. Chromium had been detected as the colouring 

 matter of artificial ruby. On heating above 300° C all the characteristic 

 spectrum lines disappear. The spectrum is therefore due to chromium in 

 a special atomic condition apparently not occurring elsewhere in nature — 

 '■ Some causes and effects of variation in the range of temperature " : 

 Dr. and Mrs. J. R. Sutton. A discussion of some of the more 

 salient meteorological aspects of variation in the range of temoerature. 

 Harmonic constants of barometric pressure and temperature had been 

 computed for months of great and for months of small range of tempera- 

 ture. — "Algebraical development of the elliptic perturbative function used 

 in the theories of planetary motion '' : R. T. A. Innes. Tables were 

 given for the calculation of certain functions. "A supposed new mineral 

 from Du Toit's Pan, Kimberley " : Prof. B. de St. J. Van der Riet. 

 The author considered the supposed mineral to have been derived from 

 Calcium carbide that had been used in acetylene generators on the mine. 

 In the generators at Stellenbosch the author had found pellets similar 

 to those brought from Kimberley. In both cases they were accompanied 

 bv slaked lime, the variations in hardness were similar; in composition 

 they ranged from iron carbide to iron silico-carbide ; both evolved an 

 odour of acetylene when crushed, and neither contained notable quantities 

 of titanium. — " Further magnetic observations in South Africa during the 

 years 1910 and 1911"; Prof. J. C. Beattie. Reduced results of ob- 

 servations for determining the secular variation of the magnetic elements, 

 and results of additional observations in the Western Transvaal and the 



