288 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



It is with considerable regret that I have to announce to the 

 subscribers of the The New Zealand Journal of Science that 

 the second attempt to keep a periodical of the kind going in this 

 colony has proved unsuccessful. With the present number this 

 issue comes to a close. There can be no doubt of one fact in 

 regard to such a periodical, namely, that if it were sufficiently 

 supported by all the scientific societies of Australasia even as a 

 record of their proceedings, it would prove most valuable. Speaking 

 for myself, — and my want must be that of numbers of others 

 interested in, and attempting to carry on scientific work, — I have 

 often wanted to know what was being done in other colonies and 

 in other parts of this colony in certain lines of research. A 

 journal in which all the societies could record their doings would 

 therefore be most useful, and this the present publication has 

 attempted to do. Unfortunately secretaries of societies are not 

 always alive to the importance of keeping their members in touch 

 with other and similar organisations, and any imperfections in this 

 direction are attributable to this cause. So convinced am I of the 

 good which would result from a joint publication of their proceedings 

 by the various scientific societies in Australasia, that I would urge 

 upon those members who meet in conference at Hobart next 

 January, to try to come to some arrangement in this direction. 



'the history of private enterprise in connection with scientific 

 periodicals in Australia and New Zealand has been one of failure. 

 Most of the societies in existence receive just so much Government 

 aid as enables them to publish their papers, and in this way to 

 kill private effort. 



The previous and present issues of this Journal, the Southern 

 Science Record, and, within the last twelve months, the issue of 

 the Spectrum in Sydney, all testify to the fact. At the same 

 time many of the scientific societies, and notably the N.Z. Institute 

 are so long in the publication of their papers, that an author may 

 wait twelve months after reading a paper before he sees it in 

 print. This certainly wants remedying. Meanwhile the publication 

 of an abstract in a widely-spread periodical would obviate many of 

 the objections. 



In conclusion I would express the hope that the suggestion 

 thrown out here may be acted upon, and that a mild form of 

 federation in the department of scientific work may precede that 

 political federation of Australasia of which we have heard so much 

 of late years. 



GEO. M. THOMSON. 



Dunedin, November 14th 1891. 



