342 



perly catalogued. We blame no one for this, because no one 

 IS to be blamed. It is a case of "'/es angusta" — lack of funds. 

 It takes all our subscriptions and all our grants from the G-o- 

 vernment to pay our few incidental expenses, and the com- 

 paratively enormous expense of bringing out our yearly vol- 

 ume, by which, through exchanges, we get aur iiorary. We 

 trust the Government, which has proved itself conimendably 

 favourable to our requests for assistance, will come to our aid 

 in this special need, and earn the gratitude of the Society. 



May we ask : Where is the person who will emulate the 

 enlightened generosity af the donor of the Barr-Smith lib- 

 rary in the U niversity of Adelaide ? He will not only confer 

 a lasting favour upon a body of self -denying workers, who 

 have to spend all they can spare in prosecuting their own re- 

 searches but will be advancing the knowledge of his State 

 and enlarging tlie science of the world. 



We have reason to hope that the Governm.ent will place on 

 the Estimates a sum for next year equal to what we were 

 granted last year. We need all we can get. Our work is 

 largely limited by the funds we have at our disposal. Had 

 we more to sj)end, we could effect more. In time past tiie 

 question of the acceptance of papers of value has had to be 

 considered simply from the standpoint of whether the Society 

 could afford to pay fo-r the printing. And now some contri- 

 biitors are only able to publish in our Transactions because 

 they agree to find the money to pay for their illustrations, 

 or because the cost is guaranteed by others. This is in part 

 the explanation of the variety of our recent volumes. The 

 funds of the Society are too small to bear the strain of such 

 costly plates. We think the Government would do well to 

 increase its grant by another £50. The sum would be a 

 trifle to the country, but a boon to the Society, and would 

 be well and carefully spent in the highest form of education, 

 and the most utilitarian, that of original research. 



So, too, some of our more wealthy colonists might give 

 themselves the pleasure of making a donation to the Royal 

 Society of a sum, either small or great — the larger the bet- 

 ter—as an endowment, or as a fund to be spent at the rate 

 of not more than so much a year in current expenses. In 

 doing this they would be doing a good work, and erecting a 

 monument to their memory more enduring tlian brass, as well 

 as more lustrous and more refined. 



We are anticipating to welcome, at the beginning of 

 1907, in our city, the members of the Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. We trust the gathering will be a large 

 one, a select one, and an enjoyable one. and representative 



