Ixxxvi REPORT—1905. 
III. A Committee of the Council, consisting of Professor G. H. 
Darwin, Sir A. Geikie, the General Secretaries, and the General Treasurer, 
was authorised to consider the appointment of an AssisTanT SECRETARY, in 
succession to Dr. Garson, resigned, with the result that Mr. A. Silva 
White was unanimously appointed to fill that office, 
TV. The books and other publications presented to or received in 
exchange by the Association, with the exception of the publications of the 
Corresponding Societies of the Association and the Annual Volumes of 
Reports of the various Associations for the Advancement of Science, 
have been transferred to the Library of University College, Gower 
Street, the Council of University College having undertaken to give the 
same facilities to Members of the British Association for the use of 
University College Library as were granted under similar cireumstances 
by the University of London. 
V..The following Resontution, from the Committee of Section A, 
having been referred to a Committee consisting of Dr. A. Buchan, Dr. 
H. R. Mill, Dr. Shaw, and the General Officers, to consider and report 
thereon to the Council :— 
The Committee of Section A desire to draw the attention of the Com- 
mittee of Recommendations to the concluding portion of Sir John Eliot’s 
Introductory Address to the Sub-Section for Astronomy and Cosmical Physics, 
‘and to express the opinion that the organisation of a Central Meteorological 
Department for the British Empire would be of the highest benefit to the 
progress of Meteorological Science and its application to the economic pro- 
blems of the various Colonies and Dependencies. The object of each depart- 
ment would be to collect and prepare digests of the Meteorological observa- 
tions taken in different parts of the Empire, to provide a scientific staff for 
dealing with the more general Meteorological problems, including their rela- 
tions to Solar Physics and Terrestrial Magnetism, which involve the co-ordina- 
tion of data from wide areas, and to promote experimental investigations of 
the scientific questions which arise in connection with such discoveries. The 
Committee desire also to express the opinion that the reorganisation of the 
Meteorological Office, which is at present before the Government, affords an 
exceptionally favourable opportunity for the establishment of such a Central 
Meteorological Department for the Empire. 
The Memoranpvum that follows was drawn up by the Committee and 
has been approved by the Council :— 
Memorandum on a Proposal for dealing with Meteorological Questions 
affecting the British Dominions beyond the Seas. 
There is at present no provision for the systematic, treatment of the 
meteorology of the British dominions. 
Observations of various kinds are made in nearly all the British Colonies 
and Dependencies, and summaries of these observations are generally included 
in the respective official publications. India, Ceylon, Canada, ,the several 
States of Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, and the 
Transvaal have organised meteorological establishments and issue regular 
meteorological publications. Information with regard tojthe meteorology of 
the Crown Colonies and Protectorates is to be found in the Blue-books of 
the several dominions. 
There is no provision for the co-ordination of the methods of observing, the 
instruments employed, or the presentation of results, 
Tn 1890 the Meteorological Council published a volume of summaries of 
Colonial observations of the Army Medical Department and of the Royal 
