ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HOKITIKA LITERARY SOCIETY.

Your committee have the honor of presenting to you the fifteenth annual report of the proceedings of the institution, showing its financial position, &c, for the year 1881. The financial position of the society at the last annual meeting was as follows : —Assets : Balance in the Bank of New Zealand £77 6s 6d ; cash in hand, £1 ss ; overdue subscriptions, £15 15s ; rent due for Society's Reserve, £6; and subsidies of £15 eich from the Boroughs and County Councils, making a total of £130 63 6d.

The liabilities were £7 Os sd, thus showing a aredit balance to the society of £123 6s Id. , Our position at present is as .follows :— Assets: Balance io the Batik of New Zealand, £50 12s lOd , cash in hand, £1 5s ; over due subscriptions, £19 ;Dr Giles for books, ordered from Mudie and Co., £6; rent due for the Society's Reserve, £6 ; and rent due for Society's Museum, 15s ; making a total of £83 12s lOd. Our liabilities are £4 17s 6d, showing a credit balauce to the society of £78 15s 4d.

The number of members on the society's roll for the year 1880 was 120, and for this year, 80. The desrease . of 30 members during the year, (28) of whom have left the district) has made a considerable dimenution in the subscriptions, and your committee would strenuously urge upon the members, the advisability of using their utmost exertions to increase the number of subscribers.

During the year there have been 14 ordinary committee meetings called, one lapsed for the want of a quorum, and one was adjourned to the following Tuesday, there was also one special meeting, making 15 meetings altogether, the number of attendances of each member of committee being appended to this report. A meeting of the Westland Institute was held on the evening of the 11th of February, when a paper was read by Mr F. E. Clarke, describing a bird new to science, found at the mouth of the Mikonui river, and one on the evening of the Ist of November, when a paper was read by Dr Bakewell, on the production of inflammatory action in detached portions of dead animal bodies ; both papers were forwarded to Wellington for publication in the Transactions of the N.Z. Institute.

A special meeting was held on the evening of the 23rd of August, when a list of new books selected by the Library Sub-Committee, to the amount of £50, was approved, and the secretary instructed to order them from Mudie and Co. by the outgoing mail of September the 7th, and they may be expected to arrive in January next.

In consequenae of complaints made by the Borough Council, of the noise made by visitors to the Library and Reading Room, going up and down stairs, your committee have had the stairs covered linoleum. Your committee have also had several improvements made in the museum which together with the linoleum has incurred an outlay of £10 4s.

The number of new books will amount to about 17Ovols, which added to the society's library will increase the number of vols to upwards of 2340.

The Public Reading Room, connected with the institution has been very well attended during the present year, both by the residents of Hokitika and visitors froai the country, and also by sailors, tourists and travellers visiting the port, the number of persons availing themselves of its advantages being more than last year. A subsidy of £25 was received on the 20th of October, from the Harbor Board, and a like sum on the 14th November from the Borough Council, Your committee have also applied to the County Council for a subsidy, but have not yet received an answer to their application. The Entertainment Sub-Committee is making preparations for giving a dramatic and musical performance for the benefit of the institution, which we hope will materially increase its funds and enlarge its capacity for carrying out its objects. The thanks of the committee are due to Mi Oswald Hugo, who gave two lectures on Physiognomy on the evenings of the 30th of November and Ist of December. We regret so say that the lectures were not very well attended, but after deductthe expenses of advertising, the sum of £4 10s 6d waa realised in aid of the funds.

The committee have much pleasure in acknowledging a number of donations to the Museum and Library, a detailed list of which is appended to this report, and again take this opportunity of thanking the donors for their kind gifts.

The museum greatly needs careful and skilled arrangement, aad the separation, preservation, aud proper exhibition of the more valuable articles. We think it desirable that the services of any who have skill in such matters should be secured by a reasonable payment, for the purpose of putting the contents of tho museum in proper order. In connection with the subject of the museum, we desire to recommend that the I promotion of acclimatisation and natural history pursuits should not be lost sight of if any opportunity of furthering them I should offer. It should not be forgotten that this institution represents the former I Natural History and Acclimatisation Society, and this relationship has been ' recognised by the Literary Sosiety, which has lately approved of an application to : vest in the institute the reserves mad© for acclimatisation purposesWe think that these purposes should be explicitly set forth in the rules of the institution, and we have accordingly provided for this in the revised code of rules, a draft of which awaits the approval of this meeting. The revision of the rules above referred to ha 3 been made because the old rules had become partly antiquated and useless by alterations made since they were printed, and if those now proposed are approved, we recommend that a sufficient number of them be forthwith ordered to be printed.