island about which very little is known. A Dutchman (Eyma?) made the first important collection of plants there about 1938 or 1939. Brown is very keen to go back to Timor. He should make a good ex- pedition man. A very small little chap, but I should judge 100% man. Knows radio well. Is well liked and has a good professional reputation in T.I. At the doctor's house in the evening for cards (500). The name is Barnes, not Brown. The "Cora", a John Burke vessel of about 150 tons, came in yesterday from Gulf Ports. Tried to get a passage on her to Port- land Roads as she leaves for Cairns at daylight tomorrow, but partly through the reluctance of the Captain (Sid Niel) to put into P.R. on a special call, and partly because of uncertainty as to when the vessel could arrive there, I gave it up. The Cora has only one qualified navigator and therefore anchors at night. She could not get to P.R. before Friday perhaps, and I have a plane booking from here to Iron Range for that date. Capt. Niel is run down through overwork and is the gloomiest man I have met in a long time. Re- ports of a cyclone off the east coast add to his worries as he slouches depondently from bar to bar with a bunch of ship's papers under his arm. Wednesday February 11 Morning spent at the Bank of Australasia, browsing through Novitates Zoologicae. The manager is a son of A. S. Meek, the famous collector who for many years combed the New Guinea subregion for birds and insects for Lord Rothchild's Tring Museum. Meek has apparently a full set of the Novitates up to Volume XL, published in 1937, when Rothchild died. Also has photo albums and newspaper clippings of his father's. A. S. Meek married a sister of the two Eichhorn brothers whom he trained as collectors. A. S. Meek died in Sydney some few years ago after living in retirement since 1908. One of the Eichorns died in Cairns, the other was killed by New Guinea natives during World War II. Meek junior has no interest in Natural History and I am trying to persuade him to give his father's books and records to a museum, preferably the AMNH, which now has the Rothchild bird collections. Meek and all other business men I have met in T.I. are most critical of Queensland Government policy in regard to the Torres Strait native. The natives have too much money, get too much tender consideration, and are badly out of hand. Islanders earn high wages as pearl divers. Some island communities have been assisted by Government in acquiring pearling vessels of their own. Some of these vessels, now native owned, were confiscated from white owners during the war and these former owners are unable to get them back. Meek says he knows one native diver who last year had an income of £1500 after taxes; others are in the £1000 a year bracket. Natives who formerly were segregated in native quarters, now live in former European houses through the town. They are getting grog, riding around in taxis and are most independent in their attitude toward white men. Mrs. Meek said that this morning she walked past some amese native children playing in the street, and one child called "white trash" to her. The child was reprimanded by another child of the group. Evidently there is racial feeling on both sides.