948 REPORT—1905. 
fieid and one year in office work, given with a singleness of purpose and a 
devotion and enthusiasm which are beyond praise. To his foresight is due 
the fact that no accident happened to mar the progress of the work, and to 
his tact the fact that he and his party were everywhere welcomed, and no 
objections were seriously raised to his entrance on farms or claims made 
for damage to property. The rapid progress and the high efficiency of 
the work in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony are the result of his 
great experience and administrative capacity. 
The difficulties which must beset an international commissioner in 
another country than his own were overcome by the patience and tact of 
Lieut.-Colonel Laffan in the Anglo-German Boundary Survey, and high 
praise is also due to Lieutenant Doering, the German Commissioner, for 
his loyal co-operation. Both Commissioners had to carry out the work 
through a country presenting the greatest difliculties to survey operations. 
In some places the nearest water to the survey points was forty miles 
distant, and even then the supply was precarious. In others, heavy clear- 
ings of shrub and forest had to be made, and the great distances from 
points where repairs of waggons, &c., could be executed largely increased 
the difficulties. 
Mr. Alexander Simms rendered most valuable service in Rhodesia, 
where he directed the field operations and made all the observations 
south of the Zambesi. During the wet weather transport was impossible, 
and soon after the rains ceased the natives began to burn the grass—a 
process that filled thé air with such dense smoke that no horizontal angles 
could be measured. Thus the patience and endurance of the observer 
were most severely tried, and the greatest credit is due to Mr. Simms 
for the way that he stuck to his trying work and the excellent results that 
he secured. 
To Dr. Rubin and Mr. McCaw in Northern Rhodesia a very heavy and 
trying task has fallen. They had to encounter similar, and even greater 
difficulties than those encountered by Mr. Simms—to train natives in 
heliograph signalling, a matter of the greatest difficulty, as natives are only 
willing to take short periods of service, and quit the work almost before 
they are trained. They have now devised simpler methods, which natives 
can be readily taught, and which are not liable to failure. In this and 
many other ways they have shown an infinity of resource in trying and 
difficult circumstances. 
The survey owes much to the services of Mr. Robinson, who has been 
long at the head of the computing staff, and has raised himself by his 
energy and talent to that position from that of a computer at the Obser- 
vatory. Mr. Lowinger has done valuable work in a like capacity. 
To these men and their cordial co-operation the success of the 
geodetic survey is due. 
I cannot conclude without an expression of regret that, on account of 
the present financial depression in South Africa generally, it has been 
found impossible to commence the topographic survey, of which the 
country stands so much in need and for which the geodetic survey 
furnishes so reliable a basis. 
I cannot think that this most necessary work, for which all the pre- 
liminary arrangements have been made, can now be long delayed, and 
I venture to hope that the influence of the opinion of this Association 
may be exercised in the way of directing the attention of Ministers to the 
wisdom of making an early beginning of the work. 
