560 Proceedings. 



Abstract of Annual Report. 



During the past year the Society has held seven general meetings, at 

 which twenty- eight papers were read. 



Eight new members have been added to the roll during the past 

 year, and we have lost by death a most valuable member of the Society, 

 the late Mr. W. Skey. 



The balance-sheet shows that the receipts for the year, including the 

 balance carried forward, amount to £164 17s. 6d., and the expenditure to 

 £87 2s. Id., leaving a balance in hand of £77 15s. 5d. 



The Researoh Fund fixed deposit now amounts to £35 9s. 10d., which 

 increases the credit balance to £113 5s. 3d. 



Election op Officers for 1901. — President — Mr. G. V. 

 Hudson ; Vice-presidents — Mr. H. B. Kirk and Sir James 

 Hector; Council — Messrs. G. Hogben, R. C. Harding, H. N. 

 McLeod, R. L. Mestayer, E. Tregear, Martin Chapman, and 

 George Denton ; Secretary and Treasurer — Mr. R. B. Gore ; 

 Atoditor — Mr. T. King. 



Sir James Hector congratulated the President on his re-election, and 

 spoke of the very efficient manner in which he had conducted the busi- 

 ness of the Society during the past year. 



Mr. Hudson briefly thanked the members for the honour conferred 

 upon him. 



Papers. — 1. " Description of a New Ophiurid (Amphiura 

 ttsfer)," by Mr. H. Farquhar ; communicated by the Secretary. 

 {Transactions, p. 250.) 



The specimen was found near Timaru by Mr. A. Haylock. 



2. "On Seismograms of Distant Earthquakes," by G. 



Hogben, M.A. 



Mr. Hogben said he wished to place on record what he took to be a 

 notable event in the history of seismology in Australasia — that was, the 

 identification of two or three of the tracings of the Milne seismograph in 

 Wellington with those of somewhat similar instruments at European 

 stations. On the recommendation of Sir James Hector, the New Zea- 

 land Government ordered two horizontal pendulums for recording one 

 element of the minute or microseismio vibrations that passed round or 

 through the earth. One of these was placed under his (Mr. Hogben's) 

 charge, and it was now installed in a specially constructed room under 

 his private house. Several months were occupied in allowing the 

 masonry oolumn on which the instrument was placed to settle, and in 

 testing and adjusting the instrument. It was not, therefore, until Octo- 

 ber of last year that it was in full working-order. The instruments at the 

 central Imperial station for Germany, which was also the headquarters 

 of the International Seismological Association, appeared to have been in 

 working-order on the 1st July, 1900. They were somewhat more sensitive 

 than the Milne seismograph, and were of the type known as the Rebeur- 

 Ehlert. The essential prinoiple, however, was the same. He had received 

 from Dr. Gerland, of Strasburg, and from Dr. Schutt, of Hamburg 

 (where Rebeur-Ehlert pendulums were also installed), abstracts of the 

 records of their instruments for the month of October, 1900. Of the four- 

 teen shocks or series of shocks recorded at Strasburg, Mr. Hogben noted 

 clear coincidences with shocks recorded in Wellington in three cases, 

 and more doubtful coincidences in two other cases. One of the earth- 

 quakes, from the evidence available so far, seemed to have come from 

 some place in the eastern Pacific, probably from the coast of Peru, 



