xciv REPORT — 1903. 



An invitation for the Meeting of 1905 will be presented from Cape 

 Town. After very full consideration of the matter the Council recom- 

 mend that the invitation to hold the Annual Meeting of the Association 

 in South Africa in 1905 be accepted. 



The President having approached Sir Donald Currie with the object of 

 ascertaining how far transit rates to South Africa might be reduced on 

 behalf of the Association and its Members, received the following letter 

 in reply ; — 



' 4 Hyde Park Place, London, W., 

 'June 11, 190.S. 



' Dear Professor Dewar, — "With reference to the call with which you 

 favoured me the other day and to our interview of this morning, I write 

 to let you know that, as I have to leave for Scotland to-morrow, I shall 

 now put in writing the arrangement which 1 propose in order to carry out 

 your wishes on behalf of the Association. 



' I understand from you that the Association contemplate a visit to 

 South Africa the year after next, and that you have to some extent made 

 the necessary preparations, but that you have been very anxious to have 

 the assurance from me that the terms for the conveyance of the Members 

 of the Council and their friends shall be such as can have your entire 

 approval, and enable you to have a successful visit to South Africa of a 

 representative character. 



' Further, I understand from you that it is possible that other friends 

 will be prepared to assist the funds which will be required to make the 

 visit successful and not onerous to those who may engage in it. 



' You have suggested that you will call the Council together and that 

 I may be invited to meet them at Burlington House, but owing to the 

 jjereavement we have suffered I am hardly likely to be able to get back 

 to London for the time you have suggested, hence the desire which I had 

 to let you know in writing and without delay what T have to say in order 

 to assist you in the proposed visit of the Association to South Africa. In 

 the first place, in regard to the terms, I propose to you that our Mail 

 Company shall make a reduction of 30 per cent, upon the ordinary return 

 fares which we charge to the public, this reduction to be in favour of the 

 official Delegates. In addition, ordinary Members of the Association and 

 members of their families may wish to accompany them, and for their 

 passage I propose that the price shall be reduced 25 per cent. 



' It is very gratifying to me to be in a position to assist. I am well 

 aware of the immense impetus that has been given to scientific investiga- 

 tion in the United Kingdom by the annual meetings of this Association ; 

 and it is thoroughly in accord with the spirit of Imperialism that the 

 Mother Country should encourage Colonial scientific effort by a visit of 

 the British Association to South Africa. There is another reason I am 

 happy to be of service to that body of vigorous workers who by their inve.sti- 

 gations advance their respective sciences, and by their lectures and teaching 

 keep us in touch with the progress made in this country and in others. 



' The efforts of such intelligent workers as yourselves are not prompted 

 by a love of gain and a spirit of commercial enterprise, and I venture to 

 say that all who have received practical advantages and benefits from such 

 researches, studies, and developments should be ready to acknowledge 

 gratefully your successes in every way in their power. 



' I can lay no claim personally to having taken any part in such 

 scientific research ; but it has fallen to my lot during the many years I 

 have been connected with steamship enterprise and Colonial mining work, 



