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McCall, Agent-General for Tasmania, who had been selected to represent the Australian State Governments on the Committee.
2. The Minutes* of the Sixteenth General Meeting were passed.
3. The Quarterly Reportt of the Director was received. It was pointed out by Mr. Marshall that the report needed some correction, as since it was written replies had been received from the Gambia, the Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone Governments expressing their willingness to continue their grants to the Bureau.
The Chairman congratulated the Director on his interesting report. He suggested that the time had now come when the Committee should again report their progress officially to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Mr. Read under- took to arrange for the drafting of a report accordingly. Dr. Shipley stated that he thought that it would be well to bring the work of the Bureau more prominently to the notice of the general public, and he hoped to send a letter on the subject to the Times as soon as the proposed report had been submitted to the Secretary of State.
"
Mr. Read, in calling attention to the Director's observations as to the identifica- tion of parasitic hymenoptera, which are of great importance in the control of injurious insects, informed the Committee that the Secretary of State was particu- larly interested in the question of controlling noxious insects by parasites of this kind, and had recently expressed a hope that the entomologists in this country and in the Colonies were endeavouring to find means of keeping down insect pests in this way. Professor Lefroy emphasised the importance of the identification of parasitic hymenoptera from the point of view of agriculture; if the Bureau could take this up, they would be doing an extremely useful piece of work. The difficulty as to this, which Mr. Marshall pointed out in reply, was that none of his assistants had been with him long enough to be able to specialise on this work; he hoped, however, with more attractive prospects which would be afforded, if the recommendations presently to be submitted by the Chairman of the Finance Sub-Committee were approved, to keep the assistants for a reasonable period, and that it would then be possible to arrange for each assistant to devote himself to some special section of the work, including the parasitic hymenoptera. As regards assistants generally, he asked members of the Committee who knew of likely men to communicate with him in order that he might consider them for the existing vacant appointments; a knowledge of French and German (written) was required, and general knowledge of zoology desirable; some acquaintance with the Scandinavian languages would also be of great assistance, although not essential.
any
4. The report of the Finance Sub-Committee was presented by Dr. Harmer, and the following recommendations were approved
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(a) That Mr. J. J. Simpson, whose first period of engagement as Travelling Entomologist in West Africa expires on the 14th of December, 1913, should be offered re-engagement for a period of three years at a com- mencing salary of £525 in the scale £500-£25-£600.
(b) That Mr. W. North, Assistant Editor, should be granted annual incre-
ments of £20 in the scale £300-£400.
(c) That an Assistant Director should be appointed to help the Director, and that the post should be offered to Mr. S. A. Neave, Travelling Entomo- logist in East Africa, at a salary of £450.
(d) That the Assistants in the Bureau who are now engaged at a salary of
£150 should be granted increments of £15 in the scale £150-£200. (e) That an additional Assistant should be engaged at a salary of £150-
£15-£200 to help Mr. North with the work of abstracting.
(f) That arrangements should be made for carrying on the preparation of the card index, on the understanding that the recurrent expenditure involved would not exceed £250 per annum.
(g) That a French typist and shorthand-writer should be engaged at a com-
mencing salary of 15s. a week.
It was made clear that, allowing for this increased expenditure, the Bureau would still retain a balance of about £300 per annum out of the yearly income, apart from the surplus balance in hand, amounting to about £1,000.
was
A further recommendation submitted by the Finance Sub-Committee as to the "Bulletin of Entomological Research" and "Review of Applied Entomology approved, viz., that as from the 1st of January, 1914, free copies of the Bureau's
‡ No. 46.
• No. 22.
† Annexure,
47
publications should be sent to the contributing Governments at the rate of one copy of the Bulletin for every £50 subscribed, and one copy of the Review for every £10 subscribed, except in the case of the Tropical African Colonies and Protectorates. for which the rate should be one copy of the Bulletin and one copy of the Review for every £20 subscribed, subject always to the proviso that it would be left to the discretion of the Director to send a smaller number of free copies if it should appear that the full number is not required.
In connexion with this recommendation, Mr. Marshall explained that the actual loss to the Bureau would be quite small, about £50 per annum, as the Bulletins and Reviews thus distributed would be taken from the surplus stock, and the only subscriptions lost would be those paid by the Tropical African Colonies and Pro- tectorates and a few other Colonies for the copies of the Bulletin which they had hitherto received. The question of distributing free copies had arisen out of a request from the New South Wales Government for two free copies of the Review: the request had been acceded to, but it was obviously inequitable to treat one contri: buting Government differently from another in a matter of this kind, and he thought that the scheme now put forward would work satisfactorily.
The question of the Index to the Review was also discussed. The Sub-Com- mittee had come to the conclusion that, on the analogy of other journals (such as the Zoologischer Anzeiger ") subscribers would have no ground of complaint if a charge were made for the Index, which would be very full, and in some ways the most important part of the Review, provided that an abbreviated Index were published as well, and included in the volume sent to subscribers. The Committee concurred in this opinion. At the same time there was the question whether or not the Index should be sent free to the contributing Governments as opposed to ordinary sub- scribers, and it was agreed provisionally that two free copies of the Index should be sent to each of the contributing Governments, but that in the meantime the Director should endeavour to ascertain exactly how many these Governments really required. As regards exchanges, the Committee accepted Professor Poulton's suggestion that it should be left to the discretion of the Director to deal with each case on its merits. The formal authority of the Committee was given for the payment of a sum of £25 to Mr. C. Warburton for identification work done on behalf of the Bureau, and for an increase in the sun drawn monthly by the Director for current expenditure from £25 to £40.
5. The Committee considered the desirability of reducing the numbers of the Review now issued. Of 2,000 printed, only about 700 were distributed, and Messrs. Dulau, the publishers, had asked for a small increase in the payment for storage. As the number of private subscribers was comparatively small, suggestions were made that the Review might be advertised in foreign journals, and also brought to the notice of the various Planters' Associations in India, Ceylon, and other countries, but it was left to the Director to take such action as he might think best for making it known more generally. Meanwhile, it was early to cut down the size of the issue, as, according to experience gained with other scientific publications at Cambridge, Dr. Shipley and Professor Nuttall thought that three years were required to get such a journal properly known, and that there was always a possibility that the circulation might rise considerably, in which case back numbers would be wanted. It was decided, however, that the size of the issue might be decreased, provided that it was not allowed to fall below 1,500.
6. The Committee received copies of correspondence* with the Treasury and the West African Colonies relating to the renewal of the grants for tropical African entomological research.
The Chairman observed that the Treasury had confined their approval to the renewal of the grant of £1,000 on behalf of the exchequer-aided Protectorates in tropical Africa to a period of three years.
7. The Committee received copies of a lettert from the Colonial Office to the High Commissioner for New Zealand relating to the appointment of Mr. A H Cockayne as ex-officio member of the Committee in New Zealand.
8. The Committee received copies of the proceedingst of the Special Sub- Committee appointed at the Sixteenth General Meeting to consider steps to be taken on Major S. P. James's report on the protection of India from yellow fever, and of subsequent official correspondences arising out of the Sub-Committee's recom-
mendations.
Nos. 30, 31, 34, 35, 41 to 41, and 48.
† No. 39. ‡ No. 26.
Nos. 27, 28, 33, and 47.