SELBOKNLl NA 
■> 
Nature Study. — A special sub-committee to deal with 
Rural Education has been appointed by the County Councils 
Association, and this body has drawn up a circular which has 
been sent to seventeen counties, with a view to their exhibitin'; 
Nature Study work at the Royal Agricultural Show at Lincoln 
next June. An endeavour is also being made to arrange Nature 
Study Exhibitions in connection with other important Agri- 
cultural Shows. The suggestions as to exhibits have been 
published at length in the School Government Chronicle for 
December 29. They are very full and very good; the only 
objection to be taken is that meteorological records made with 
the aid of purchased instruments are included luider the heading 
of Nature Study. There still seems to be a tendency, as 
mentioned in the review of Mr. Westell’s “Nature Knowledge 
Diary,” to confound Nature Study with Elementary Science 
teaching. 
WiTLEY Common. — Lord Carrington, who has received peti- 
tions both for and against the enclosure of a portion of Witley 
Common as a burial ground, has felt bound to hold a local 
enquiry in which both sides of the question can be heard. Sir 
Robert Hunter, in commenting on the matter in the Spectator, 
hopes that commons in the neighbourhood of London will not 
be sacrificed to the passing whim of the ratepayers of a parti- 
cular parish, but will be preserved intact for the public at large 
and for posterity. 
Extinction of Trees round Bournemouth. — The Morning 
Leader calls attention to the way in which the pine trees round 
Bournemouth are being cut down to make room for shops and 
small villa residences. The laying out of roads has also caused 
the uprooting of other trees, though the Town Council and 
private owners are making praiseworthy efforts to repair the 
loss by planting young firs, wherever possible. 
PuRLEY Beeches. — Another appeal has had to be made for 
funds for the purchase of Purley Beeches. It appears that three 
hundred and fifty pounds are still required if the Beeches are 
to be preserved as an open space. Subscriptions should be 
sent to the Honorary Secretary of the Croydon Branch of the 
Selborne Society, Mr. E. A. Martin, F.G.S., of 58, Whitworth 
Road, South Norwood, S.E. 
The National Trust. — A Bill is to be promoted next session 
for the incorporation of the National Trust for places of Historic 
Interest or Natural Beauty. Of the Council it is suggested that 
various bodies should appoint members, and the Selborne Society 
would nominate one. 
The Curse of Machinery. — We commend to our readers 
an article by Mr. Reginald Newton Weeks, in the January 
number of the Nineteenth Century, on the effect that machinery 
has in desecrating natural beauty and in thinning the numbers 
of our agricultural population. 
