CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 387 
He was sure that would give a very great access of dignity to this Con- 
ference of Delegates. In the ‘ Daily Journal’ they had a long list of the 
Sectional Committees, but no list of the Delegates of the Corresponding 
Societies! One other point. He was very gratified indeed to hear the 
Chairman’s suggestion to recognise the association of Societies inde- 
pendently of publication. If communications were of importance they 
should be published by some great Central Society, and if unimportant 
they were perhaps better left unpublished. 
Mr. A. O. Walker, referring to the suggested payment of 5s. per fifty 
members, said he represented a Society which had a thousand members, 
and accordingly on these terms their subscription would be 5/.a year. He 
was sure they could never afford it. 
Mr. Theodore Reunert (Johannesburg) stated that he had the honour 
to be President of the South African Association for the Advancement 
of Science, which would act as an: agency of the British Association on 
the occasion of their visit to South Africa in 1905, He then explained 
briefly what is the present state of things in South Africa scientifically. 
The South African Association was formed three years ago in Cape Town, 
during the war, with Sir David Gill as the first President; and it now 
has members all over South Africa, from Cape Town to the Zambesi, 
who number something like two thousand. Perhaps it would interest the 
meeting to hear that one of the most gratifying features of this new South 
African Association was the hearty and sympathetic support which it had 
received from the various Governments of South Africa. On the occasion 
of its first annual meeting in Cape Town the Government of Cape Colony 
voted something like 400/. to defray the whole cost of publishing their 
first year’s proceedings. The Government of the Transvaal Colony, on. 
the occasion of their second annual meeting, voted a similar sum for the 
publication of that year’s proceedings, and the various Governments among 
them have voted 6,000/. towards assisting in the expense of the British 
Association’s visit in 1905. 
Mr. H. Reid (South African Association for the Advancement of 
Science) thought that a great deal of the lack of general interest in science 
may be due to want of help and encouragement from the central bodies 
in dealing with local Societies. 
The discussion of the Chairman’s Address was then adjourned until 
the next meeting. 
In answer to a question by Captain Dubois Phillips, R.N., the Secre- 
tary said that the question of the reduction of railway rates for members 
of scientific societies had been under the discussion of the Committee, but 
no definite result had yet been attained. It was a matter involving con. 
siderable difficulty. 
The Chairman said he thought that naturalists should be treated as 
generously as anglers. He thought the most effective way of taking 
action would be to ask the Committee to draw up a statement and 
forward it to all the affiliated Societies with a request that they would 
sign it, so that there would be united representation from all parts of the 
country. He believed that if the Presidents and Secretaries signed a 
‘ The names of the Delegates are printed in a conspicuous position in the List of 
Members, and before the conclusion of the Cambridge Meeting a List of Delegates 
appeared also in the ‘ Daily Journal’ in response to the appeal above recorded. 
co 2 
