APRIL 15, 1897 | 
NATURE 
563 
parks and pleasure grounds came before the Committee of 
Supply, Mr. Burns brought up the question of opening the 
gardens to the public earlier than 12 o'clock, the hour of open- 
ing at present. In speaking upon it, Mr. Chamberlain said : 
‘*The hon. member has failed to realise the peculiar position 
in which Kew Gardens stand ; he treats them as if they existed 
for the benefit of the inhabitants of Kew. That is not the 
proper merit or claim the gardens has upon our support, but it 
is as a great scientific establishment. We are very justly proud 
of the gardens. I have seen almost every botanical garden in 
Europe, and I think I am right in saying there is nothing in 
the whole of Europe which can hold the candle to Kew. Iam 
not speaking as to the decoration of the gardens, but as to their 
scientific value. There is nothing peculiar in Kew Gardens 
opening at 12 o'clock. A great number of foreign institutions 
open at 12 o’clock, and some do not open until late in the after- 
noon. But the point is that if the gardens were opened at the 
time the hon. member desires they should be opened, we should 
most materially interfere with their value as a scientific institu- 
tion, and should interfere with the work of the officials. In my 
capacity as Colonial Secretary I am continually applying to Kew 
in reference to the cultivation of all kinds of plants, and I do 
not hesitate to say that some of the great improvements made 
in the Mauritius and some of the West Indian Islands are due 
almost entirely to the advice and assistance received from the 
Kew officials. It is not fair to attack public servants who are 
really performing useful duty, and it is not fair to throw on them 
duties which would detract from their value as advisers of the 
colonial and other officers of the Government who may from 
time to time have occasion to apply for their services.” Mr. 
Burns afterwards remarked that his object in urging the opening 
of Kew Gardens at an earlier hour than 12 o’clock was not only 
in the interests of visitors to London, but on behalf of the large 
body of young men and young women who were studying 
botany and kindred subjects at the polytechnics. Mr. Gladstone 
said that it was desirable to extend the privilege of visiting Kew 
Gardens to as many people as possible ; but the question was 
not so simple as was supposed. He had gone into the matter fully 
when he was First Commissioner of Works, and he found that 
when the gardens were opened on Bank Holidays at an earlier 
hour than 12, comparatively few people availed themselves of 
the privilege. He did not think that sufficient advantage would 
result from this arrangement to balance the extra cost which 
would be involved. But it might be possible to give more 
facilities to societies and students to visit the gardens under 
special permission. In replying to the suggestions that the 
gardens should be opened at an earlier hour for students, Mr. 
Akers-Douglas said that there could be no doubt that arrange- 
ments might be made in that direction. He had made special 
inquiries, and he found that any one wishing to visit the gardens 
early for scientific purposes was never refused admission. If 
institutions, such as those which had been mentioned, wished 
for the purposes of study to visit the gardens, he was sure that 
they would be admitted, and more than that, he would take 
care that they should be admitted. 
THE second annual congress of the South-Eastern Union of 
Scientific Societies will be held at Tunbridge Wells on Friday 
and Saturday, May 21 and 22, under the presidency of the Rev. 
T. R. R. Stebbing, F.R.S. Particulars can be obtained from 
the Hon. General Secretary, Mr. George Abbott, Tunbridge 
Wells. 
A MEETING of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will be 
held on Wednesday evening, April 28, and Friday evening, 
April 30. The chair will be taken by the President, Mr. PE. 
Windsor Richards. The following papers will be read and 
discussed, as far as time permits :—‘* Mechanical Propulsion on 
NO. 1433, VOL. 55] 
Canals,” by Mr. Leslie S. Robinson (Wednesday) ; ‘‘ Experi- 
ments on Propeller Ventilating Fans, and on the Electric Motor 
driving them,” by Mr. William George Walker (Friday). 
THE following are among the lecture arrangements at the 
Royal Institution after Easter :—Dr. Tempest Anderson, four 
lectures on Volcanoes (the Tyndall Lectures); Dr. Ernest H., 
Starling, three lectures on the Heart and its Work; Prof. 
Dewar, three lectures on Liquid Air as an Agent of Research. 
The Friday evening meetings will be resumed on April 30, when 
a discourse will be given by Prof. J. J. Thomson on Cathode 
Rays ; succeeding discourses will probably be given by Prof. 
Harold Dixon, the Right Hon. Lord Kelvin, Prof. H. Moissan, 
Mr. W. H. Preece, and Mr. William Crookes. 
ErrorTs are being made to establish a national photographic 
record and survey collection, to be under the direction and in 
charge of the authorities of the British Museum. It is proposed’ 
to form a preliminary Committee to organise the work, and to- 
invite to act upon it representatives of the Royal Society, the 
Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Photographic Society, the 
Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Archzological 
Institute, the Royal Geographical Society, the Trustees of the 
British Museum, and others. 
On Easter Monday the 129th meeting of the Yorkshire 
Naturalists’ Union will be held at Boston Spa, for the investiga- 
tion of the banks of the Wharfe, from Flint’s Mill to White 
Crag. We take the opportunity afforded by this announcement 
to call attention to the admirable leaflets which the Union issues. 
to the members previous to its meetings. The circular before us. 
points out the most important features of the geology, botany, 
vertebrate zoology, conchology, and entomology of the district 
to be visited, and is altogether a business-like and helpful pro- 
duction. Many natural history societies would do well to take 
the methods of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union as_ their 
pattern. 
A VERY fine specimen of an egg of the Great Auk was sold 
by auction at Mr. J. C. Stevens’ rooms on Tuesday. Bidding 
began at 100 guineas, and reached 280 guineas, at which price 
the egg was secured by Mr. T. G. Middlebrook. 
A? a recent special meeting of the Royal Scottish Society of 
Arts, says the Zvectrician, a report by the Committee appointed 
to adjudicate on the electric meters that had been submitted in 
competition for the special Keith prize of 50/. was read. Nine- 
meters were sent in, These were tested at the Edinburgh 
central station with continuous and alternating currents. The 
Committee were of opinion that while several of the meters. 
possessed many points of novelty and ingenuity which might be 
capable of further development, none of them were of sufficient 
merit to warrant the Society in making any award. 
We learn from the 7Z%es that the Council of the Royal 
Geographical Society have awarded the annual honours as 
follows :—The Founder's medal to M. Semenoff, Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Russian Geographical Society; the Patron’s. 
medal to Dr. George M. Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S., Director 
of the Geological Survey of Canada; the Murchison grant to- 
Lieutenant Seymour Vandeleur, D.S.O., for his journey of 
goo miles in Somaliland and along the Abyssinian frontier in 
1893-94; for making surveys of 2073 miles of routes in 
Uganda, Unyoro, and on the Upper Nile, in 1894-96 ; and 
for astronomically surveying 200 miles of practically unknown 
country in the Niger region, and surveying the new road to. 
Bida and Ilorin from Jebba. The Gill memorial to Mr. C. 
E. Douglas, for persistent explorations on the western slopes 
of the New Zealand Alps, extending over twenty-one years. 
