OUR LATE PRESIDENT. 



On May 22nd of this year Sir T. Crossley Rayner, Kt., K.C., Chief 

 Justice of the colony, was taken of! with tragic suddenness in the midst 

 of transacting official duties in his own Court. 



Many a warm tribute published at the time from Bench and Bar and 

 prominent citizens reflected the high esteem in which he was held by all 

 who were privileged to know him in the discharge of his legal functions 

 and in the social and religious life of the colony. The Royal Agricul- 

 tural and Commercial Society in electing him at the end of last year to 

 the highest honorary office was but acknowledging the great interest in 

 its work shown by the late Chief Justice and his many labours for the 

 advancement of those aims which the Society was founded to promote. 



On the revival of "Timehri" with the issue of the first number of a 

 new series in July, 1911, Sir Crossley Rayner, then Attorney Genera], 

 was among the contributors with an article on " A Visit to the Kaieteur 

 Falls," an account of the journey he made in September, 1910, in the 

 days before the convenient and comparatively quick means of travel now 

 established were in existence. At that time, as he remarks in the article 

 referred to, not more than fifty people had ever seen this wonderful and 

 impressive sight and only two or three records of visits paid to it had 

 been written. 



The interesting lecture on his journey, illustrated by lantern slides, 

 given by Sir Crossley Rayner in January and repeated in February of 

 1911, must still remain in the memory of most members of the Society. 

 Again in July, 1911, at the Reception of His Excellency the Governor 

 and Lady Egerton in the Society's Rooms, he contributed to the 

 significance and interest of that occasion a series of lantern vievvs of the 

 colony from photos taken by himself and by Professor Crampton, of 

 the American Museum of Natural History. 



In 1912 he became one of the Directors of the Society and finally 

 in 1914 he accepted the office of President. He brought to the work of 

 these offices that conscientious performance of duty and painstaking care 

 which were prominent characteristics of his life, official and private, 

 sparing neither time nor labour in doing whatsoever he undertook. 



In this issue we print the inaugural address given by our late 

 President on 27th January, 1914, in which he offered a strong plea for 

 the Society and vindicated its place in the community against current 

 misconceptions. His advocacy in that address of Railway Development 

 and West Indian Federation, and his especial insistence on the easy 

 possibility as well as advisability of a Common Court of Appeal in spite 

 of differences of legal codes in the various colonies, add an authoritative 

 voice in favour of a movement which is gathering way and weight for 



