127 
Director of Agriculture Kuala Lumpur, 
Kuala Lumpur, 17th January, 1912. 
Sir,— I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter 
7/1021 dated the 16th instant. 
I am unable to replv to your query without submitting same to 
the Annual Meeting (to be held this year on April 28th) which passes 
the budget of our financial year (April 1st to March 31 st). 
Perhaps you could make it convenient to be present at this 
Meeting and place personally your views before the members. 
I have etc., 
(Sd.) H. C. E. ZACHARIAS, 
Secretary. 
Mr. Cruickshank proposes, Mr. Gibson seconds and it is carried 
unanimously that the sum of $1,000 appear again under this heading 
in the estimates for the .ensuing year. 
17. Imperial College of Technology. 
The Secretary places the following letters on the Table : 
The Secretary, 
Planters’ Association of Malaya, Muar, 
Kuala Lumpur. 18th January, 1912. 
Dear Sir, — I enclose copy of a circular received from the Rector 
of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensing- 
ton, which I think should be brought to the notice of your members 
and I should be much obliged if you could further the objects of the 
scheme outlined in the circular. 
For some years past the Botanical Division of the College has 
endeavoured to meet the demands for men, who, by special training, 
are fitted to deal with the problems involved in agriculture both at 
Home and more particularly in the Tropics. With the rapid growth 
of tropical agriculture, and the increasing complexity of the many 
problems associated with the cultivation and the sanitation of plants 
(rubber, cocoa, coffee, cotton, etc.), an extension of the Department 
has become a matter of necessity. ^ 
The College has been impressed by the magnitude of the issues 
at stake in connection with the modern developments of Agriculture 
in the Tropics and it has resolved to meet the need for a thorough 
training of those who are to undertake the duties of advisors and 
sanitation officers, by founding a new Department of Plant Physio- 
logy and Pathology, under the immediate charge of a man specially 
selected for his eminence in the branches of science more directly 
/ -concerned'. 
Trusting you will give this matter attention. 
I remain, 
Yours faithfully, 
(Sd.) J. MITCHELL. 
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