TRANSACTIONS OF SEGTIOIS H. 1009 



on tlae views -which I have ventured to lay hefore you. It is much to be wished 

 that others who have the like faculty, if even in a lesser degree, could be induced 

 to take up similar work in other districts, now that Dr. Gregor has so well shown 

 the way in which it ought to be done. 



The work done by the Committee for the Ethnogi-aphical Survey of Canada ; 

 the completion of the Ethnographical Survey of the North- Western tribes which 

 has been ably conducted for many years ; and the progress made in the Ethno- 

 graphical Survey of India will also be brought under your notice, the latter in a 

 paper by Mr. Crooke, who has worked with Mr. Risley upon it. 



Another movement, which was originated by this Section at the Liverpool 

 meeting, and was referred to iu the report of the Council of tha Association last 

 year, has made some progress since that report was presented. Upon the recom- 

 mendation of this Section, the General Committee passed the following resolution 

 and referred it to the Council for consideration and action : — 



' That it is of urgent importance to press upon the Government the necessity of 

 establishing a Bui-eau of Ethnology for Greater Britain, which, by collecting 

 information with regard to the native races within and on the borders of the 

 Empire, will prove of immense value to science and to the Government itself.' 



The Council appointed a Committee, consisting of the President and General 

 Officers, with Sir John Evans, Sir John Lubbock, Professor Tylor, and your 

 esteemed Vice-President, Mr. Read, the mover of the resolution. Their report is 

 printed at length in last year's Report of Council, and shows clearly how useful 

 and how easily practicable the establishment of such a Bureau would be. The 

 Council resolved that the Trustees of the British Museum be requested to consider 

 whether they could allow the proposed Bureau to be established in connection with 

 the Museum. I understand that those Trustees have returned a favourable answer ; 

 and I cannot doubt that the joint representations which they and this Association 

 will make to Her Majesty's Government will result in the adoption of a scheme 

 calculated to realise all the advantages which we in this Section have so long looked 

 for from it. In the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer we have statesmen who cannot fail to appreciate the benefits the com- 

 munity must derive from acquiring accurate and scientific knowledge of the 

 multifarious races which compose the Empire. 



Those of us who visited the United States last year had the opportunity of 

 observing the excellent work which is done by the Bureau of Ethnology at 

 Washington, and those who stayed at home are probably familiar with the valu- 

 able publications of that department. An Act of Congress twenty years ago 

 appropriated 4,000/. a year to the Smithsonian Institution for the coutinuauce of 

 researches in North American anthropology. The control of the Bureau was 

 entrusted to the able hands of Major Powell, who gathered round him a band of 

 skilled workers, many of whom had been previously engaged on ethnographic 

 research under the direction of the Geographical and Geological Survey of the 

 Eocky Mountain region. In field work and in office work, to use Major Powell's 

 convenient distinction, ample return has ever since been rendered to the LTuited 

 States Government for the money thus appropriated, which has since been increased 

 to 8,000/. a year. Our own Bureau of Ethnology would have a wider sphere of 

 operations, and be concerned with a greater number of races. It would tend to 

 remove from us the reproach that has in too many cases not been without founda- 

 tion — that we have been content to govern races by the strong hand without caring 

 to understand them, and have thus been the cause of injustice and oppression from 

 ignorance rather than from malevolence. If that were only a record of the past, 

 we might be content with mere unavailing regret ; but the colonial empire is still 

 expanding, and we and our competitors in that field are still absorbing new dis- 

 tricts — a practice which will probably continue as long as any spot of ground 

 remains on the face of the globe occupied by an uncivilised race. 



Would it not be worth while at this juncture to extend to the peoples of Africa, 

 for instance, the principles and methods of the Ethnographic Survey — to study 

 thoroughly all their physical characters, and at the same time to get an insight 



1898. 3 T 



