May 14. 1903] 



NATURE 



35 



(i) Terrestrial Magnetism. —Sir Arthur Rucker 

 (chairman), Messrs. Litznar, Moureaux, Palazzo, 

 Paulsen, von Rijkevorsel and Rykatcheff. 



(2) Radiation and Insolation.— Proi VioUo (chair- 

 man), MM. Angstrom, Chistoni, Chwolson, Snellen, 

 Stupart, and Tacchini. 



^ :;) International Weather Telegraphy.— Fro{. J. M. 

 niter (chairman), Messrs. Billwiller, Mohn, von 

 :,cumaver, Rykatcheff, Snellen, Tacchini. 



(4) Cloud Observations.— Proi. H. H. Hildebrands- 

 son (chairman), Messrs. Mohn, Riggenbach, Rotch, 

 Rvkatcheff, Sprung, and Teisserenc de Bort. 



'(5) Aeronautics.— Prof. H. Hergesell (chairman), 

 MM. Assmann, Erk, de Fonvielle, Hermite, Jaubert, 

 Pomortzeff, and Rotch. 



To the last mentioned the following names have been 

 provisionally added by cooptation :— Messrs. Berson, 

 Angot, Bouquet de la Grye, Cailletet, Rowanko, in 

 1898; Prince Roland Bonaparte, Tacchini, Teisserenc 

 de Bort, Hildebrandsson, Pernter, Hinterstoisser, 

 Moedebcch de Sigsfeld, in 1900, and others in 1902. 



The subcommittee on terrestrial magnetism held a 

 very successful meeting at Bristol during the session 

 of the British Association in 1898. All the subcom- 

 mittees met in Paris in 1900, and the aeronautical 

 committee met in Berlin in 1902. The subcommittee 

 on cloud observations has completed its work for the 

 time being, and Prof. Hildebrandsson 's report has 

 just been published. 



The subcommittee upon weather telegraphy will 

 meet at Southport, but information as to proposed 

 meetings of other subcommittees is not yet forth- 

 coming. 



Two conspicuous considerations point to the forth- 

 coming meeting of the committee as one of exceptional 

 interest and importance. The first is meteorological. 

 The situation of the British Isles with regard to the 

 Atlantic must necessarily attract the attention of all 

 meteorologists. The problems which that situation 

 brings into prominence are doubtless among the most 

 difficult, but at the same time the most interesting 

 of meteorological inquiries. The second is economical 

 or social. This country is a great centre for com- 

 munication with all parts of the globe, and in spite 

 of, or perhaps because of, its insular position, is easy 

 of access from all quarters. There are, therefore, good 

 grounds for expecting that the hospitality of the 

 British Association and of Southport will result in a 

 meeting of unusual interest as regards meteorology 

 and the kindred sciences. 



No programme of proceedings has yet been issued. 

 The executive meetings of the committee must neces- 

 sarily be exclusive, but opportunity will be afforded 

 for the discussion of meteorological questions of 

 general interest in connection with the meetings 

 of Section A, as was the case with the magnetic sub- 

 committee at Bristol. Among the new subjects which 

 will come before the committee may be mentioned the 

 special question of the relation between meteorology 

 i and solar physics, the discussion of which it is hoped 

 [ may be initiated by the president of the British 

 \ Association. 



' Southport has special appropriateness for such a 



\ meeting. Its meteorological establishment, the Fern- 

 ley Observatory, under the direction of Mr. J. Baxen- 

 dell, is a conspicuously successful example of 

 ; municipal enterprise in that direction. In connection 

 I with the meeting, provisional arrangements have been 

 ' made for an exhibition of novel meteorological appli- 

 ' ances and other objects of meteorological interest. 

 A committee representing the Meteorological Council, 

 the Royal Meteorological Society, and the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society, with some additional members, 

 has been formed to carry out the arrangements. 



NO. 1750, VOL. 68] 



MAORI ART.^ 



NOT only students of Maori ethnography, but those 

 who are interested in artistic technology, will 

 heartily congratulate Mr. A. Hamilton on the comple- 

 tion of his great work on " Maori Art." Although 

 this magnificently illustrated monograph nominally 

 deals with decorative art, it is by no means confined 

 to that subject, as for many years Mr. Hamilton has 

 been diligently collecting facts and illustrations which 

 bear on the social life of the Maories. Many interest- 

 ing customs have be'en omitted as being beyond the 

 scope of the work ; usually only those matters are con- 

 sidered which are connected more or less closely with 

 objects which are capable of being figured. Not too 

 soon has Mr. Hamilton applied himself to his labour 

 of love; constantly throughout the book do we find 

 uncertainty as to the exact significance of patterns 

 and designs, and occasionally objects are figured of 

 which the use or meaning is very doubtful. Nor is this 

 indefiniteness due to lack of energy on the part of the 

 author; it is merely another example of the great 

 change that is so rapidly modifying the majority of 

 backward peoples. " How much interesting inform- 

 ation," Mr. Hamilton writes, "has been lost can be 

 estimated by the fragments which have been gathered. 

 The system of laws for the government of the body 

 politic known as tapu, was the outcome of centuries 

 of experience of practical socialism. However 

 irregular, capricious, and burdensome it may now 

 appear to have been, it was certainly the source of 

 order to them, and was of great use to conserve them 

 as a race, and to sharpen their intellectual and moral 

 faculties, besides retaining the canon of art in its 

 native purity. As Mr. Colenso points out, when all 

 this was swept away, together with polygamy and 

 slavery, without anything to replace them, the nation, 

 as a people, was broken up. ' However distasteful,' 

 he says, ' these three things might be to an European 

 and Christian, they were the life of the New Zealander. 

 They were, perhaps, the three rotten hoops round the 

 old cask, but they kept the cask together.' " 



The work consists of five parts, of which the first 

 part contains an account of Maori canoes, with ten 

 plates. Part ii. deals with Maori habitations, with 

 diagrams of the construction of a house, plans and 

 sections of a fortified pas, with fifteen plates, and a 

 valuable essay by the Rev. Herbert Williams on Maori 

 rafter patterns, illustrated by twenty-nine coloured 

 examples ; these have never been described, and there- 

 fore the explanation of Mr. Williams of the patterns 

 is doubly welcome. The weapons and tools are de- 

 scribed in the third part, and are illustrated by eleven 

 plates. The fourth part deals with dress and personal 

 ornaments, with fifteen plates. The final part is devoted 

 to the social institutions of the Maori people, with de- 

 scriptions of their games, amusements, and musical 

 instruments, with thirteen plates. Each of the sixty- 

 four plates contains illustrations of several objects, and 

 there are numerous figures in the text, so that the 

 total number of illustrations is very large, and all of 

 them are of excellent quality and constitute a mass of 

 information for the ethnographer, and a wealth of 

 material for the student of art. A noticeable feature 

 of each part is the list of .words relating to the subject- 

 matter of that part, which forms a valuable subject 

 vocabulary, which will prove of great use to students. 



The wood-carving of the Maories is very character- 

 istic, as regards both technique and motive. The 

 designs are carved with great boldness, considerable 

 relief is employed, and the background is usually filled 

 up with labyrinthine designs, the spaces of which are 



1 "Maori An." By A. Hamilton. Pp. 439; 64 plates and numerous 

 illustrations in the text. (New Zealand Institute, Wellington, N.Z 

 Price 4/. 4J. 



