APPENDIX F LXXXIII 
any measure which is now, or has ever been employed by any English 
speaking people. I have ventured to suggest how this obstacle may 
easily be removed, and it appears to me that the position of this Society 
is such that it may with great propriety invite all interested in a subject 
of such general importance to consider the suggestion to which atten- 
tion is now directed. 
Action taken and Results. 
The foregoing address of Sir Sanford Fleming was issued by the 
Council during the summer. It attracted considerable attention in the 
United States and in the United Kingdom. It appeared in the annual 
report of the British Weights and Measures Association and was thus 
circulated throughout the Empire, as a possible solution to a long un- 
settled world problem. As the matter is of much general interest, we 
give the following samples of press notices from far off New Zealand. 
A “ METRIC” COMPROMISE. 
By WILLIAM WYE SMITH. 
There ‘is nothing more difficult to fix than a standard measure of 
length. We want something in Nature that is unvarying in all climates, 
and in all temperatures; and we cannot find it. Our Scottish’ ancestors 
tried to fix it by the average width of three men’s thumbs for an inch; 
and afterwards, by another enactment, three barleycorns, out of the 
middle'of the ear, wantin’ the tails. But there would always be a varia- 
tion, both in the thumbs and the barley-corns. If every one had the 
liberty (or the necessity) of going back to the original standard—be it 
thumbs or barleycorns, or the length of the king’s arm for a'yard—it 
would be an intolerable nuisance, and would breed no end of disputes; 
and if an original measurement was taken, and this perpetuated by 
copies of 'the “original,” then the whole matter becomes artificial; and 
the original “standard ” might as well have been artificial. 
Now, our foot and yard are artificial measures, there is no doubt 
of that. And the metre is just as artificial. It claims to be the ten- 
millionth part of the quadrant of a meridian of the earth. But it is 
impossible for the public to verify this measurement; and the ‘metre 
simply becomes what the yard is—an artificial measure, perpetuated by 
copying the first metre, just as the first (or official) yard is copied. 
Well, if we are expected to adopt a measure—which to all popular 
apprehension is an artificial one—why adopt a new one, when we have 
. 
