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1 President of Natural History Society, Marlborough College, Marlborough, Wilts. 1 Colonel Jewett, New York. 1 Dr. Wqjeikof, of St. Petersburgh. 1 Hon. Mr. Casey, Victorian Government. 1 Dr. Harm, for the Eoyal-Imperial Institute for Meteorology and Earth Magnetism, HoheWarte, near Vienna. 1 Dr. Berggren, University of Lund, Sweden. Libraries and Societies in New Zealand. 1 Secretary, Auckland Institute. 1 Secretary, "Wellington Philosophical Society. 1 Secretary, Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 1 Secretar}', Nelson Association. 1 Secretary, Otago Institute. 1 General Assembly Library. 9 Provincial Council Libraries. Publishing Branch. 1 Editor. 1 Assistant Editor. 2 Draftsman. 1 Lithographer. 1 Government Printer. Total, 104 copies. Museum. The alteration and extension of the buildings of the department, which have, since last report > been undertaken by the Government, will, it is believed, when completed, leave little to be desired in that direction for a considerable time. These works, which were commenced in November last, and are still in progress, but rapidly approaching completion, affecting as they have done almost every portion of the building, have necessitated, the exclusion of the public for a long period, but this loss will be amply compensated for when the collections, together with the large and valuable additions expected from Europe on the return of the Director of the Geological Survey, shall have been arranged in the Museum, while the erection of office accommodation will remove many obstacles to the progress of departmental work. There have been 4,813 specimens added to the Museum during 1874—75, over 4,000 of which have been collected in the field by the officers of the department. Owing to the extensive alterations ■which have been going on in the Museum building, the number of presentations for the past year falls short of what it has been in former years. A large and valuable collection has been taken to England by Dr. Hector with a view to identification and exchange, so that next year considerable additions will be looked for in the objects of interest in the Museum. Mammalia —A specimen of the humpback whale, JHegaptera australis, has been received from Mr. G. Gooch, from the Kaikoura Beach. Two specimens of the black fish, Olobiocephalus tnacrorhynchus. and one skeleton of Eubaloena marginaia, from Mr. Charles Traill, of Stewart Island. Captain Fairchild also procured for the Museum a specimen of a new species of cow-fish. Birds. —Fifty-seven specimens have been added to this department since last report, the chief of which are twenty-seven foreign birds sent by Dr. Otto Finsch, of Bremen. A fine specimen of peacock {Pavo cristatus), by Mr. J. Monteith ; and a large specimen of the Patagonian penguin, presented by Mr. C. Traill, and mounted by Mr. Morton. Meptilia. —The only entries under this head are a collection of lizards from the Brothers Islands, and from Stewart Island, by Mr. C. Traill. Fishes. —No additions of any importance have been received under this head. Invertebrata. —Little has been received beyond a collection of Tasmanian insects from Mrs. Battersbee. Paloeontology. —During the present year large collections have been made from parts of the Canterbury, Marlborough, and Nelson provinces, with a view to determining the relations which exist between the bituminous coal of the West Coast and the Saurian beds of the Waipara, but the evidence obtained is not sufficient at present to settle this satisfactorily. Much interesting information has, however, been obtained, together with good collections from the Waipara, Weka Pass, Culverden, Bakaia, and Trelissic beds ; and the lower beds of the Trelissic outlier have been shown to be of the same age as those of the Waipara, the Inoceramus, Belemnites, &c, of which, in addition to the Saurian remains, distinctly pronounce them as secondary. A survey of the coast line between Cape Kidnappers and Castle Point has also been accomplished, and a collection comprising over 750 fossils been made from the tertiary, cretaceo-tertiary, and secondary rocks of the district, of which the latter prove to be of Jurassic age. A further collection has been obtained from the Taipos, on the east, coast of Wellington and Napier, comprising several new species ; and from the Tairua Valley a collection has been made, showing the rocks of that district to be of the same age as those of the Ahuriri formation, which appear at Napier and Castle Point. A survey of the country between Eaglan and the Miranda Eedoubt, in the Province of Auckland, has been completed, and careful collections made from the various localities where fossils were found. About 1,300 specimens were collected on this trip, and it is interesting to note that, for the first time in the North Island, fossils [Monotis salinaria] were discovered in the older rocks forming the Hakarimata