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Libraries and Societies in New Zealand. 1 Secretary, Auckland Institute. 1 Secretary, Wellington Philosophical Society. 1 Secretary, Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 1 Secretary, Nelson Association. 1 Secretary, Otago Institute. 1 Hawke Bay Philosophical Institute. 1 Westland Institute. 1 General Assembly Library. 9 Public Libraries. 1 Secretary. Publishing Branch. 1 Editor. 1 Assistant Editor. 2 Draftsman. 1 Lithographer. 1 Government Printer. Museum. Prom the 9th July, 1876, to the present date, 14,500 visitors have entered their names in the book kept in the Museum-hall for that purpose. There have been 41,159 specimens received into the Museum during 1876-77, 12,159 of which are specimens collected by officers of the Geological Survey staff. Herbarium. —The Herbarium has undergone little change since last report; specimens of several local plants have been added by the department, and a collection containing 40 specimens of South Island species have been presented by Captain Campbell Walker, of the Forest Department, through Mr. T. Kirk. The presentation, referred to in last report, by the Trustees of the British Museum, arrived during the year in good condition, containing about 25,000 species of European and other plants, but, owin<* to the want of a suitable place where they can be conveniently referred to, they still remain unpacked. In connection with the Herbarium Department, a collection of seeds and products, including a large number of pine cones, have been arranged in the north gallery of the Museum, classified in their natural orders and named. During the year about 50 plates have been lithographed, including the illustrations for Vol. IX. of the Transactions New Zealand Institute. Sixty maps and sections have been prepared for the Geological Survey Reports ; and the first part of a descriptive work on the Grasses of New Zealand, containing 10 folio plates and letterpress, has been prepared by Mr. John Buchanan, F.L.S., Botanist and Draughtsman to the N.Z. Geological Survey. Natural History Collections. —The show-cases ordered in London, and those received from the Philadelphia Exhibition, have now been placed in the Museum, and additional accommodation for the display of specimens has been gained by the erection of wall cases round the whole extent of the gallery. The contents of the Museum are now set out on a general plan, although the minute arrangement and cataloguing of the specimens is far from complete. It is intended that the central part of the hall should be devoted to general typical and foreign collections ; the north wing to the illustration of the natural history of New Zealand, zoology on the ground floor, and botany in the gallery J while the whole of the south wing Is devoted to the collections made in the course of Geological Survey of the colony. A new edition of the Catalogue of the Museum, which will be framed on the complete prospective arrangement, is in preparation. Mammalia. —No important addition has been made to this section of the collections, only 34 new specimens having been received, from the Smithsonian Institute, U.S. America. A considerable number of skins and skeletons received from England, and included in last year's'return, are still unmounted. The preparations of the Cetacea have been examined and rearranged, and several large skeletons mounted, among them is that of the great Rorqual (Sibbaldius), the goose-beak whale (Berardius), the black-fish (Globicephalus), and the cow-fish (Tursio). Birds. —235 skins have been received during the year, the largest addition being a collection of 84 species obtained from the Cambridge Museum as an exchange. The number of birds mounted and placed on exhibition during the year is 400. The extensive collection of birds-eggs has received an addition of 65 specimens, and a selection from it has been classified and arranged in the Museum cases. Fishes. —Convenient shelves have been erected for receiving the alcoholic preparations and cases prepared for the stuffed specimens, but none of the recent additions to this class, which comprise a very extensive selection of European and American forms, have yet been removed from the tanks in which they were received. The New Zealand collection has received several interesting additions, and now contains nearly all the known species. The " Descriptive Catalogue of the New Zealand Fishes," of which an edition of 1,000 copies was published in 1872, is now out of print, and a new and revised edition is in preparation. Invertebrata. —The publication by the department since last report of the " Descriptive Catalogue of the Crustacea," by J. E. Miers, F.L.S., has enabled the collection of this class to be classified and exhibited, but it is very imperfect compared with the number of specimens attributed to the New Zealand waters. The Mollusca has been largely added to, chiefly by foreign collections and by alcoholic preparations of the New Zealand species, a series of which it is intended to collect for purposes of study.