Fifteenth Annual Meeting. 331 



Report of the Publication Committee. 



Sixty papers were offered for publication, and of these fifty were accepted by 

 the Committee for publication in Volume 49 of the Transactions. It' was decided to 

 deposit the manuscript of another paper in the library of the New Zealand Institute 

 and to publish the title, so that this might be indexed and give information to other 

 workers as to the availability of the work. It is proposed to treat similarly other papers 

 so deposited in the future. The remainder of the papers were withdrawn, held over, 

 or declined. 



Volume 49 of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Neiv Zealand Institute was 

 issued on the 20th December, 1917. It contained xvi + 618 pages (of which 88 are 

 devoted to the Proceedings), 37 plates, and many text-figures. 



The late publication of the volume must be accepted as a direct consequence of the 

 war, which has depleted the staff of the Government Printing Office and supplied it 

 with a large amount of extra work of an urgent nature. It must be remembered that 

 the publication of scientific matter is undertaken by the Government Printing Office 

 only in the slack season. When the pressure of urgent work for Government Depart- 

 ments increases, the time available for work on the Institute's publications is reduced. 

 The Committee is of the opinion that the Institute is deeply indebted to the Government 

 Printing Office for maintaining the high standard of typographical work in the 

 Transactions in these trying times, and, while regretting the lateness of the publication 

 of Volume 49, realizes that the lateness resulted from uncontrollable circumstances. 



An innovation that has given much satisfaction is the issuing of authors' copies 

 of articles in Volume 49 in advance of publication of the volume. This was authorized 

 by a resolution of the Board of Governors, and has resulted in giving early publication 

 to those papers in particular which appear in the early pages of the Transactions. Each 

 paper bears the date of issue, and, in accordance with the resolution of the Board of 

 Governors, the date of receipt of the manuscript by the Editors. The latter, however, 

 is at present meaningless, since the manuscripts are generally retained by the Secretaries 

 of the incorporated societies until the last week of December. Moreover, the only 

 apparent reason for recording the date of receipt is to insure page priority in the volume, 

 and no resolution to this effect has been passed. If this is the intention of the Board 

 of Governors, it necessitates a revision of the method of transmission of manuscripts 

 from the authors to the Editors, and also involves a departure from the present 

 method of arrangement of papers in the volume according to subjects and authors. 

 If this is not the intention, the insertion of the date of receipt of the manuscript seems 

 useless. 



The Committee recommends that the Secretaries of the incorporated societies be 

 requested to send the manuscripts of papers to the Editors as soon as possible after they 

 have been read. If this is done, much earlier publication of the authors' copies than 

 has been usual may be expected. Early receipt of the manuscripts will also allow these 

 to be returned to the authors when extensive alterations are required, and, in some 

 cases, will obviate the necessity of holding over such papers for a year. 



Bulletin No. 1, Part V, on the New Zealand Coleoptera, by Major T. Broun, was 

 published on the 26th June, 1917, and contains 128 pages of text. Publication of the 

 other three bulletins mentioned in the 1917 report is still delayed owing to shortage 

 of funds. 



The Committee wishes to draw attention to the fact that the majority of manu- 

 scripts as received are not well prepared for publication either as regards text or 

 illustrations. The " Memorandum for Authors of Papers " published annually in the 

 Transactions is evidently seldom consulted. 



For the Committee. 



L. Cockayne, ) „ v ,., 

 ,, . ~ ' Hon. Editors. 



0. A. Cotton, j 



The Hon. the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. G. W. Kussell, was at 

 this stage welcomed by the President. 



The President thanked the Hon. the Minister of Internal Affairs for 

 addressing the meeting, and for his promise of further assistance to the 

 Institute. 



Report of the Library Committee. — The Hon. Librarian's report was 

 adopted on the motion of Dr. Thomson, seconded by Mr. Hill. 



Report of Library Committee. 



The incoming exchanges have been received, registered, and placed upon the 

 shelves. As the Institute has not been able to devote any funds to bookbinding 



