NATURAL SCIENCE 
A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress 
No. G6 VoL, XP AUGUsT 1897 
NOTES AND COMMENTS 
CO-OPERATION AMONG NATURALISTS 
WE had barely space in our last number to chronicle the second 
annual congress of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies. 
We have now received Zhe Transactions of the Union for 1897, 
price one shilling. The Union already includes twenty-seven 
affiliated societies, and in carrying out its motto, “ Co-operation not 
uniformity,” is doing a really useful work. The papers and dis- 
cussions at the congress were for the most part thoroughly practical. 
It is recognised, as we have so often pointed out, that there is a 
vast amount of labour wasted every year by enthusiastic naturalists, 
whose misfortune it is to have no friendly and enlightened guidance. — 
The aim of such bodies as this Union is to co-ordinate scattered and 
wasted effort, and to direct it into profitable yet no less fascinating 
paths. Thus it is suggested that the Union shall form research 
committees to deal with special branches of scientific observation. 
These committees would be similar to those of the British Associa- 
tion, but they would confine themselves to local natural history. 
Like the Midland Union or the New Zealand Institute, such an 
union may become the publisher for all its affiliated societies, and 
thus exercise a much-needed editorial discretion. It can also 
organise lectures and lecture-apparatus, making a collection of 
lantern-slides to be borrowed from by any society ; this is already 
being done by the 8.E. Union. Again, there are many legal questions 
affecting naturalists and local societies, and these can best be dealt 
with by a strong corporate body. The present congress discussed 
one such question, namely, “ How can the Technical Education 
Grant assist local societies?” It appears that it is out of the 
question to ask for direct pecuniary assistance; but there seems 
no reason in justice or equity why local societies, engaged as they 
are in the education of the public, should not be allowed the use 
of a room in buildings erected with public money for purposes of 
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