ee a — = 
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.’ Ixxxvii 
Engineers, and recently they have published a volume of tables for tropical 
Africa, compiled by Mr. E. G. Ravenstein from observations practically initiated 
by a Committee of the British Association. 
Colonial observations are sent to the Meteorological Office in accordance 
‘with a circular despatch of Mr. Chamberlain. 
At the request of the Crown Agents, the Meteorological Council have 
recently undertaken the supervision of the supply of instruments for the 
Governments of the Crown Colonies. In their annual reports they have from 
time to time referred to the desirability of the compilation and regular issue 
of the results, but they have been unable to make provision for this service. 
The want of a satisfactory system of co-ordinating the observations from 
the several dominions is to be deplored from two points of view—the economic 
and the scientific. 
From the economic point of view, it is eminently desirable that facilities 
should be given for the comparison of the climatic features of the regions 
available for settlement and the conditions which affect various industries. 
At present it is possible to obtain a certain amount of information for an indi- 
vidual Colony by reference to Colonial Blue-books, but the data are of very 
different orders of completeness ; and to ascertain in which Colonies specified 
climatic conditions are to be found would be a labour of such difficulty as to 
be practically prohibitive. The Board of Trade publish a certain number of 
tables of meteorological results among their Colonial statistics, but something 
of a more comprehensive character is required. 
From the scientific point of view the regular issue of the meteorological 
data for the British Colonies in a published and easily accessible form is 
urgently desired by meteorologists of all countries. This is sufficiently shown 
by the following extract from a notice of the recent publication of the results 
for tropical Africa in the Mceteorologische Zeitschrift, the leading meteorological 
journal :— 
‘ To the Meteorological Council the warmest thanks of all meteorologists 
are due for their resolution to publish from time to time the reports of observ- 
ations at colonial or foreign stations, which are collected in the Meteorological 
Office partly in printed form and partly in manuscript. In this journal we 
have repeatedly pointed out that it is in the highest degree desirable that the 
rich store of observations which have accumulated in the Meteorological Office, 
and which might be of great importance for the physics of the atmosphere as 
a whole, should be made generally known and available. ... It is very 
desirable that this valuable publication may soon be continued.’ 
But there is another aspect from which the scientific treatment of meteoro- 
logical data must be regarded as having an important bearing upon the 
economic interests of remote parts of the Empire. : 
Sir John Eliot, in his address to'the British Association meeting at Cam- 
bridge, pointed out how the study of the meteorological conditions of the 
Indian Ocean and the bordering countries had been already applied to pro- 
blems affecting the economic conditions of India as depending upon the 
variation of the monsoon rainfall, and he gave reasons for believing that the 
further prosecution of the inquiry promises valuable results for India, Aus- 
tralia, South and East Africa, and other countries bordering on the Indian 
Ocean if provision were made for dealing with the meteorological problem in 
a comprehensive manner with reference to the Indian Ocean as a whole. 
Similar reasoning may be held to apply also to other oceanic areas, in or 
on the border of which British Colonies are situated. In this connection it 
should, perhaps, be mentioned that the control of the meteorological organ- 
isation of the British West Indies is already passing into the hards of the 
United States. 
As a result of Sir John Eliot’s representation, the attention of the Council 
of the British Association has been called to the advantages likely to accrue 
from the organised study of the meteorological problems affecting various 
groups of British dominions. 
It has been further pointed out that such organised study can be most 
effectively secured by the establishment of a central institution devoted 
to these objects. Such an institution ought to be in close connection with the 
Meteorological Office, which is itself in regular correspondence with the 
