OF THE AUSTRALIAN MEETING. 689 
(5) Vid South Africa, return, Ist class £75. Blue Funnel and 
Aberdeen lines. 
Various alternative routes were offered by the above and other 
companies: it is unnecessary to detail them here, but it may be stated 
that the companies generally met the requirements of the party very 
liberally. The vessels and routes which carried the largest numbers 
of Members on the outward journey were—(1) the Orient R.M.S. 
Orvieto, sailing from London on July 3 vid Suez and arriving in 
Adelaide on August 8, which also, by special arrangement with the 
Company, carried most of the Western Australian advance party for- 
ward from Fremantle to Adelaide; (2) the Blue Funnel s.s. Ascanius, 
which, by special arrangement, sailed from Liverpool on June 22, vid 
Cape Town, and called at Fremantle on July 28, conveying the majority 
of the Western Australian advance party; (8) the Aberdeen s.s, Huri- 
pides, which (making her maiden voyage) left London on July 1 and 
called by special arrangement at Adelaide on August 7. Some Members 
reached Australia by way of the Pacific and Sydney, and some made 
extended stays in Western Australia or elsewhere, in advance of the 
Meeting, for purposes of research. 
Communications to Members.—As Members of the Overseas Party 
were thus able to pursue their individual inclinations as to routes 
for the outward voyage, and as it was essential to the organisation 
that each Member’s route and date of arrival should be known, it 
was necessary, during the early months of 1914, for the London Office 
to request (if not to importune) the Members te state their inten- 
tions. For the most part Members appreciated this necessity, and 
only in isolated instances were the organisers at home and in Australia 
compelled to make arrangements in ignorance of the actual intentions 
of Members who failed to realise the inconvenience which they caused 
by refraining from answering inquiries, or even neglecting to give infor- 
mation that their intention to attend had been cancelled. In addition 
to such inquiries it was necessary to furnish all or some of the Members, 
during the period November 1913—June 1914, with vouchers for reduced 
steamship fares, information concerning the visits to Western Australia, 
Tasmania, and Broken Hill, and the projected visit to New Zealand, 
invitations to join these parties, information concerning arrangements 
with shipping companies, scientific investigations to be made during 
the voyage, &c., and, at a late stage, programmes of final general 
arrangements, and of sectional arrangements, together with a list of 
the Overseas Party and the route adopted by each Member so far as 
known, with which was incorporated a dated memorandum book cover- 
ing the period of the stay in Australia. Membership tickets and special 
luggage labels (bearing the Members’ distinguishing numbers) were also 
issued from the London Office. Taking all these matters into considera- 
tion, it is not impossible that some Members may have received during 
this period as many as twenty-eight printed programmes or other circular 
communications, in addition to individual correspondence with the office, 
which attained (in some instances) substantial dimensions. Indeed, the 
total number of programmes, circulars, letters, &c., issued from and 
1914. WAY 
