Annual Report

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 3, 1870, Page 96

The Annual Report was read by the Secretary, of which the following is an Abstract:— The Report which the Council now submits to the members of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, applies to a period of eighteen months. This extension of time is owing to the change which was effected last year in the date at which the official year of the Society's proceedings should commence. That date is now fixed for the 1st January of each year. During these eighteen months twenty-five new members have joined the Society. Fifty Pounds sterling have been remitted to London for the purchase of books, and £40 for a microscope for the use of the Society. There is at present a balance in hand of £29 4s. 4d. The sum of £79 16s. 2d. has been paid by the Treasurer to the Director of the Museum. Some steps have been taken with a view to secure the establishment of Lectureships in connection with the Museum, as will be seen from the Report of the Committee appointed to confer with the Provincial Government on that matter. The Council is strongly of opinion that, in order to render the Museum directly and actively useful to the community, the Directorship should be made a permanent appointment, and should be combined with a Lectureship on Natural History. The addition of other Lectureships ought gradually to follow, until a complete scientific corse be provided. The Report of

the Committee on Native and other Grasses is also appended, and will serve to show the importance of the subject and the difficulties which surround its prosecution. The Council hopes that the revised Code of Rules recently adopted, and the removal of the Institute to the more commodious and accessible rooms which it now occupies, will greatly facilitate the operations of the Society, and enable it to prosecute, with increased vigour and success, its investigations in the various branches of science and philosophy. Charles Fraser, Hon. Sec.