ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. Xlll. 



2. That the Second Popular Science Lecture of, the 

 Session would be delivered on Thursday, June 20, at 8 p.m., 

 on "Some Polynesian and Melanesian Groups and the 

 People who live in them," by Rev. George Brown, d.d. 



The following letter was read : — 



The Observatory, May 6th, 1907. 

 To the Members of the Royal Society of New South Wales. 



Dear Sirs, — Allow me on behalf of myself and family to offer you my 

 very sincere thanks for the resolutions passed at your recent Annual 

 General Meeting, of regret at my husband's death, and appreciation of 

 his long and valuable services in connection with the Society. Also for 

 your kindly message of sympathy, and believe me, yours faithfully, 



EMILY J. RUSSELL. 



THE FOLLOWING PAPER WAS READ I 



" On some peculiarities in our coastal winds and their 

 influence upon the abundance of fish in inshore waters," 

 by H. C. Dannevig, Superintendent Fisheries Investi- 

 gation, Department of Fisheries, N. S. Wales. 



Remarks were made by Messrs. F. B. Guthrie, J. T. 

 Wilshire, A. Duckworth, and the President. The author 

 replied. 



Abstract of Lecture on " Some Polynesian and Melanesian 

 Groups and the People who live in them," by Rev. George 

 Brown, d.d., delivered 20th June, 1907. Dr. Brown stated 

 that as the lecture was principally made up of a large 

 number of slides which he purposed to exhibit, he could 

 only give a few introductory remarks, more especially with 

 regard to the two races about whom he wished to speak. 

 He stated that the original habitat of the Melanesian and 

 Polynesian races was a much disputed point, almost every 

 writer on the subject having a separate theory on it. He 

 could only state the conclusions to which he himself had 

 come, admitting at the same time that there were many 

 difficulties to the full acceptance of them which he was 

 not prepared to explain. He thought it extremely likely 



