The Year-Book of the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the Colonies, and India

Abstract

THE Imperial Institute has lost no time in issuing a handsome and comprehensive year-book, compiled by the Librarian, Mr. J. R. FitzGerald, who has diligently and successfully gathered together a stack of varied information bearing on the purposes of the Institute. It is a question which time alone can answer whether amongst the many admirtble year-books of statistics, commerce, and the colonies which have established themselves as annuals of proved utility, there is room for a new and bigger book overlapping their information, and containing few, if any, novel features. It would be out of place to discuss this question in a notice which ought to be confined to the scientific aspects of the work. The object of the year book, as expressed in the preface, is to deal “statistically with the physical geography, the natural resources, and the industries and commerce of the Colonies and India,” and with certain other related facts. It would not be fair to criticise severely the first issue of so large and comprehensive a compilation; but it would help towards the attainment of the compiler's aim if the description of the physical geography of the regions touched upon could be made as full as the historical introductions, and as statistical as the commercial tables. More notice ought to be taken of the geology and the character of the soil in the colonies where geological surveys are in progress; and climate certainly deserves better treatment. We do not think space would be wasted in giving the mean monthly temperatures and rainfall for the average year, and for two extreme years, at a few representative stations in the larger colonies. This information cannot indeed be found in any existing books, but must be worked out from original records which exist abundantly, and are rarely made available to practical workers.

The Year-Book of the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the Colonies, and India,

and Statistical Record of the Resources and Trade of the Colonial and Indian Possessions of the British Empire. Compiled chiefly from official sources. First issue 1892. Issued under the authority of the Executive Council, and published by John Murray., &c. Large octavo pp. xvi. and 824.