Twenty-Eighth Annual Report.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 29, 1896, Unnumbered Page

Twenty-Eighth Annual Report. The Board held meetings during the past year on the following dates: 6th August and 17th December, 1895; 14th February and 26th March, 1896. The retiring members from the Board, in conformity with the Act, were Mr. W. T. L. Travers and Mr. E. Tregear, and there was a vacancy caused by the death of the late Hon. W. B. D. Mantell; and His Excellency the Governor was pleased to reappoint Mr. Travers and Mr. Tregear, and to appoint Mr. J. Young to fill the place of the late Mr. Mantell. The branch societies, in accordance with clause 7 of the Act, elected the following gentlemen to represent them on the Board for the year, viz.: Major-General Schaw, Mr. J. McKerrow, and Mr. S. Percy Smith. A vacancy in the roll of honorary members having occurred owing to the death of Professor Huxley, the Board, on the recommendation of the incorporated societies, elected Mr. William Mitten, F.L.S., the distinguished cryptogamist, who contributed so largely to the flora of New Zealand, to fill the vacancy. Another vacancy has occurred in the honorary members roll, by the death of the late Professor Riley, the eminent entomologist, of the Department of Agriculture at Washington. The Institute has lost by death two distinguished members, and the Board passed the following resolutions in acknowledgment of the services they had rendered:— 1. William Christopher Richmond: “That the Board of Governors, acting on behalf of the members of the New Zealand Institute, who represent scientific research in this colony, desire to place on record their appreciation of the brilliant talents of the late Mr. Justice Richmond, and of the great benefits the colony has received from his untiring efforts to diffuse sound philosophy by his numerous writings and lectures, and particularly to acknowledge the powerful aid which he gave towards the foundation of this Institute.” 2. Walter Baldock Durant Mantell: “That the Governors of the Institute express their sense of the great loss science has sustained through the death of their late colleague

W. B. D. Mantell. Throughout a long career of over fifty-five years he did noble service to New Zealand as a public official, a politician, and as a scientific investigator, and was an especially active initiator of the New Zealand Institute, in the control and management of which he took an active part since its foundation. His name will always be associated with the discovery and collection of the remains of the Moa-birds, which formed so unique a feature in the fauna of these islands.” The members now on the roll of the Institute are: Honorary members, 29; Auckland Institute, 172; Hawke's Bay Philosophical Society, 80; Wellington Philosophical Society, 143; Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 70; Nelson Philosophical Society, 24; Otago Institute, 91; Westland Institute, 62: making a total of 671. The volumes of Transactions now on hand are : Vol. I. (second edition), 240; Vol. V., 18; Vol. VI., 20; Vol. VII., 103; Vol. IX., 105; Vol. X., 138; Vol. XI., 29; Vol. XII., 36; Vol. XIII., 34; Vol. XIV., 58; Vol. XV., 168; Vol. XVI., 168; Vol. XVII., 170; Vol. XVIII., 143; Vol. XIX., 158; Vol. XX., 160; Vol. XXI., 91; Vol. XXII., 92; Vol. XXIII., 168; Vol. XXIV., 173; Vol. XXV., 173; Vol. XXVI., 178; Vol. XXVII., 180; Vol. XXVIII., not yet fully distributed. This year's volume (XXVIII.), just published, contains seventy-four articles, together with addresses and abstracts which appear in the Proceedings. The work consists of 808 pages and 37 plates, besides numerous illustrations inserted in the letterpress. The following gives a comparison of the contents of the present volume with that of last year:— 1896. 1895. Pages. Pages. Miscellaneous 204 154 Zoology 286 298 Botany 134 154 Geology 64 30 Chemistry 28 — Proceedings 47 58 Appendix 45 48 808 742 The cost of printing Vol. XXVII. was £441 16s. for 742 pages, and that for the present volume (XXVIII.) £485 6s. 2d. for 808 pages. The first part of Vol. I. of the standard work on Maori art, which is being written for the Board by Mr. A. Hamilton, is now in the press. It is devoted to Maori canoes, and is illustrated by process-block printings from photographs.

The Honorary Treasurer's statement of accounts shows that there is a balance in hand in the current account of £24 13s. 2d. The amount appropriated for the publication of memoirs and postponed papers (according to resolution) is now £818 17s. 10d. Approved by Board. James Hector, Manager. Glasgow, Chairman. 21st July, 1896.