Th'nteetdli Annual Meeting. 531 



this levy will no doubt become a permanent feature in the Board's finance. As 

 to the amount of the levy, it is imperative that it be kept as low as possible, for 

 the incorporated societies have numerous unavoidable obligations which their 

 income from subscriptions does little more than meet. 



Until our financial position is greatly improved, retrenchment in our outlay 

 is unavoidable. I am of opinion that the bulk of the Transactions (and, by con- 

 sequence, the amount of the Printer's bill) could be very considerably reduced 

 without any serious impairment of the value of their contents. Is it really needful 

 t' print year by year the whole of the matter included in the Appendix? Or 

 is vhere any great urgency about the publication of lists of new plant-habitats, 

 accounts of'.the fauna or flora of single counties or other limited districts, and 

 many of the papers on Maori culture, customs, and folk-lore submitted for publi- 

 cation? Such articles might well be passed over until the Board is once more In 

 a position to print them without "outrunning the constable." It sieems to me, 

 fuither, that papers on abstruse mathematical subjects might be altogether excluded 

 from our Transactions, in the interests of their writers if for no better reason, 

 for such papers are simply buried in our publications, and would far more fitly see 

 the light of day in some of the special journals devoted to this branch of inquiry. 

 The Publication Committee, by sternly refusing to accept for publication diffuse 

 and verbose papers unless condensed to their satisfaction, could do much to ease 

 our periodical financial difficulties. 



Owing to our limited tun;ls, only one bulletin has been issued during the year. 

 The manuscript material for t^\o additional bulletins has been held over. One of 

 these is a long and valuable paper by Major T. Broun on new New Zealand 

 Coleoftera. Major Broun is naturally greatly disappointed at the delay in publi- 

 cation, and I trust that the Board will authorize its publication as a bulletin early 

 in the present year. Other means of publication are indeed available, but it is 

 most desirable that the paper should be published here, as it is merely a continuation 

 of other papers we have publi?hnd already. Prolonged delay in dealing with this 

 paper may result in loss of priority for the new seneia and species described, in 

 which case its learned and enthusiastic imthor would be deprived of the v;ell-merited 

 and sole reward of his months and months of continuous labour and research. 



It is now more than two years since the Science and Art Act was placed on 

 the statute-book, but the special Board set up under its provisions has not yet 

 come to the birth. The arrangements for a possible transfer of the library of the 

 Institute, authorized at the Board's last meeting, are consequently in abeyance. 

 It is understood that a meeting will be held immediately. 



In the course of the year the Institute's library has been rearranged, so that 

 the publications of any given society or institution can now be easily traced. The 

 books and papers have been stamped on the outside of the cover, and can thus be 

 readily distinguished from the other works located in the Dominion Museum 

 library-room. It is a pity that the Institute's stamp has not been placed here and 

 there in the body of the books, as they are mostly in thin paper covers ; this 

 can, however, be done hereafter without difficulty. The Honorary Librarian and 

 the other gentlemen who assisted him in carrying out these improvements deserve 

 the cordial thanks of the Board. ]\Iy predecessor in the President's chair argued 

 in favour of a division of our library among the four University centres of the 

 Dominion. To this proposal I am very decidedly opposed, but there is no need 

 for recording the reasons for my view, as the project seems unlikely to meet with 

 general support. 



I may use the present opportunity to point out a conspicuous and most regret- 

 table defect in the museums of this Dominion. I refer to their failure to provide 

 any worthy collection of the native and introduced plants that grow within its 

 bordeKS. The only fairly complete herbaria in the country are the property of 

 some two or three private persons ; no museum contains anything at all comparable 

 with these. It is high time that steps were taken to remedy this anomaly. The 

 Dominion Museum at least should be provided as soon as may be possible with a 

 full and varied collection of the native and naturalized plants of our Islands. Such 

 a collection should not be confined to flowering-plants and ferns, but should cover 

 the whole of the flora. It would be a signal service to biological science if the 

 Director of the Dominion Museum could take this branch of museum service in 

 hand, and make the institution over which he presides more and more a centre of 

 light and leading for all who are prosecuting plant studies. Photographs of 

 specimen plants and trees, and of selected spots of wild nature showing the plant 

 societies that adorn our mountain valleys and slopes and other stations of interest, 

 should also be got together and placed on exhibition. The late Mr. H. J. Matthews 

 in the course of his wanderings about New Zealand accumulated a large and 

 splendid collection of photographs of the kind here referred to, and it is a matter 



