-1910.] 



3" 



kind of paper which was valuable he mentioned among others : 

 Dr. H. R. Mill's A Fragment of the Geography of Ireland ; The 

 Geographical Distribution of Vegetation in Yorkshire, by W. C. 

 Smith and C. E. Moss; Geographical Distribution of the Vegetation 

 of the Basins of the Rivers Eden, Tees, Wear, and Tyne, by F. J. 

 Lewis ; The Ethnography of the Aran Islands, Co. Galway, by 

 himself and C. R. Browne, &c. After a vote of thanks had been 

 passed a discussion was invited, and your representative expressed 

 the opinion that the Chairman expected too much of the amateur; 

 that all the examples of papers which the Chairman had men- 

 tioned were by highly trained specialists, and that the amateur in 

 producing his lists of flora or fauna was really doing a great and 

 worthy service in supplying material for the trained man. 



A proposal was made that State aid should be granted to 

 Societies whose funds did not allow them to issue Proceedings, 

 that they might thereby be enabled to publish meritorious papers 

 by their Members, or to assist the Society to pursue investigations. 

 Your representative opposed this proposal, saying that if there was 

 not sufficient enthusiasm in a district to keep a local Society alive, 

 that Society had better be allowed to die out — (a case of the 

 elimination of the unfit !), and further that a good paper could 

 always find a publisher. 



One or two delegates suggested some arrangement by 

 which local Societies could have the burden of postage made 

 lighter, and this led to Dr. Longstaff (Ent. Soc. of London) 

 moving "That the Meeting hoped the British Science Guild 

 (which had previously taken some steps in the matter) would 

 persist in its efforts to induce the Post Office to give Scientific 

 Societies the same postal facilities as the publishers of newspapers 

 and traders in general." This was passed on the understanding 

 that it would be considered by the Committee of the Corres- 

 ponding Societies. Another motion was then brought forward by 

 the Rev. J. O. Bevan "That this Conference expresses its opinion 

 that the Government be asked to enlarge the grant already 



F 



