74 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1914. 
The day-by-day statistics collected in the period April to July are now being 
analysed. The conclusions drawn from these observations will, it may be 
hoped, have some scientific value of their own, and in any case they should yield 
information which may guide the Committee, when the time comes, to further 
attacks on the problems concerned. A similar thought may be set down as 
consolation for the eclipse failure. 
In October last, at a special meeting summoned by the Inspector of Wireless 
Telegraphy at the General Post Office, where it happened that the Committee 
were represented by Dr. Erskine-Murray and the Secretary, the Committee were 
asked to draw up for the Home Office a list of gentlemen distributed over the 
British Isles who would be willing, if and when called upon, to assist the 
police by acting as voluntary experts in wireless telegraphy. The police cannot 
in general be expected to possess sufficient technical knowledge to discriminate 
between dangerous radiotelegraphic apparatus and other apparatus. Co-operation 
with the police authorities in each locality by someone possessing technical 
knowledge will help to prevent blunders and may assist in detecting illicit 
traffic. Accordingly gentlemen whose names appear in the address book of the 
Committee have been written to, and lists of voluntary experts have been sup- 
plied to the Home Office. ] 
Establishing a Solar Observatory in Australia.—Report of the 
Committee, consisting of Professor H. H. Turner (Chair- 
man), Dr. W. G. DUFFIELD (Secretary), Rev. A. L. CoRTIE, 
Dr. F. W. Dyson, and Professors A. 8S. Epp1ineton, H. F. 
Newatu, J. W. NicHouson, and A. ScHusTER, appointed to 
aid the work of Establishing a Solar Observatory in Australia. 
Tuer Committee records with great sorrow the death of its former 
Chairman Sir David Gill, whose name has always been so prominently 
associated with scientific enterprises connected with the Southern 
Hemisphere. Professor H. H. Turner has been appointed Chairman 
in his place. 
The Secretary has great pleasure in reporting that the following 
letter has been received from the Commonwealth Authorities in re- 
sponse to further representations regarding the desirability of erecting 
a Solar Observatory within the Commonwealth :— 
Commonwealth Offices, 
72 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. 
March 10, 1914. 
Dear Dr. Duffield, 
With reference to previous correspondence in regard to the estab- 
lishment of a Solar Observatory in Australia, I desire to inform you 
that I have now received a memorandum from the Commonwealth 
Government advising that in the scheme for the organisation of services 
in connection with the Seat of Government at Canberra, provision 
has been made for the establishment amongst general astronomical 
studies of a section to be devoted to solar physics in particular. _ 
Yours sincerely, 
(Signed) R. Murrueap Commins. 
Dr. Geoffrey Duffield, 
University College, Reading. 
The Committee records its great satisfaction at the promise of the 
