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International Statistical Institute. 



gates representing Great Britain were Mr. A. E. Bateman, 

 C.M.G., and Major P. G. Craigie, who attended on behalf ot 

 the Board of Trade and Board of Agriculture respectively ; 

 while Mr. J. A. Baines, C.S.I.,was delegated by the Secretary ot 

 State for India. In the absence through ill-health of the 

 president, Sir Rawsoji W. Kawson, K.C.M.G. (whose services 

 have since unfortunately been lost to the Institute by death), 

 M Levasseur, the senior vice-president and one of the French 

 official delegates, took the chair at the meetings. 



A gracious reception was accorded on the 2nd September to 

 the members and visitors by H.M. the King of Sweden and 

 Norway at a levee held for the purpose at the Royal Palace of 

 Christiania, and in commencing their formal business the 

 Institute were welcomed in the name of his government by 

 the Norwegian Minister of the Interior. 



The deliberations of the Congress were for the most 

 part conducted in two general sections, one for demo- 

 graphic and the other for economic statistics. In the latter 

 section agricultural statistics occupied considerable attention. 

 Major Craigie, in continuation of the tables submitted, 

 at the St. Petersburg meeting of 1897, contributed a note 

 showing how far it was possible with existing data to make 

 international comparisons of the stock of cattle and sheep in 

 different countries now and 30 years ago, and drawing atten- 

 tion to the defective information as yet available in the 

 statistics of many States. He submitted tables illustrating 

 the density of the live stock maintained in different parts of 

 the world so far as official records are supplied. 



A general discussion was initiated atone of the sittings by 

 the chairman, M. Levasseur, on the methods of collecting 

 agricultural statistics, in which he submitted questions 

 relating to the collection and tabulation of returns and 

 especially as to the advisability of special decennial inquiries 

 such as those resorted to in France in addition to the 

 annual returns. The Russian, French, and British delegates 

 took part in the debate, which afforded an opportunity for 

 the presentation by the latter of a memorandum embodying, 

 for the information of the Institute, a detailed settlement of the 

 English system of returns, the fulness of which rendered 



