ISSUE OF REEF BIOLOGICAL STUDIES, 1923–1927

Virtually no biological work appeared throughout 1923 and 1924. The years 1925 and 1926, in effect, were a low point in the development of Reef studies when a sequence of difficulties came together. On 25 September 1925 Nathan completed his term as Governor and retired to England as ‘Patron’ of the Committee where he worked on its behalf until his death in 1939. The Committee had now lost its most eloquent and influential advocate in Queensland. The ongoing fracas with the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Queensland (RGSAQ) was a major irritant that continued to destabilise the Committee, along with growing discontent that no significant biological work was in progress, especially in zoology which, apart from the work of Saville-Kent and Hedley, had still not developed any vigour. Then, on 14 September 1926 came the distressing news that Charles Hedley had died soon after he had returned to Sydney to farewell his wife Harriett and pack for the imminent Third Pan-Pacific Scientific Congress to be held in Tokyo. A lifelong asthmatic who had successfully found relief from the rigours of his native Yorkshire in tropic regions, he had contracted a chest complaint that exacerbated a heart condition to which he succumbed quickly.