News of Naturalists. 305 



making collections of any kind, but we shall procure what 

 we can ; we shall also be very happy to forward to Mr. 

 Macleay any collections that may be intrusted to us for 

 the purpose by friends in the Mofussil. Mr. Gould, the 

 ornithologist, is also in New South Wales, and Mr. Swainson 

 is said to be on his way to New Zealand. 



The Curator Question. 



The Report to which so many high official signatures 

 were obtained,* is stated by the late Secretaries of the Asiatic 

 Society to be based on certain resolutions of the Society, 

 which in reality is far from being the case. The only 

 resolution of the Society delegating any authority whatever 

 to the Committee of Papers on the subject of the Curatorship, 

 is the following (Journal Asiatic Society 1839, p. 1060): "It 

 " was further decided, that the Committee of Papers should 

 " report to the next Meeting, on the nature and extent of the 

 " duties the Curator is expected to undertake, with reference to 

 " the office as held in other Museums." The Committee by this* 

 were not authorised to go into any of the various questions 

 mixed up in the Report to which so many of the members lent 

 their signatures ; they were required merely to report on the 

 nature of those duties performed by the Curators of other 

 Museums, regarding which, there is not one syllable from be- 

 ginning to end of the Report in question ; nor were the 

 Committee authorised to discuss the question of who should, 

 or should not, be Curator. The question proposed to the 

 Committee, was also one with which individual interests 

 had nothing whatever to do ; it was a question therefore 

 which did not render it expedient that any member of the 

 Committee should have been excluded during its considera- 

 tion. Lastly, the Committee were not authorised to submit 

 the Report to any one with a view to induce him to decide as 



* See Journal As. Soc. ofBeng. 1839, p. 1062. 



