TenfJi Aiiiiudl Meeting. 421 



a saving of slightly over i'lOO on the eost of the volume for the previous year, 

 which was =tG48 12s. 6d. 



At the last meeting of this Board a motion was adopted to the effect that the 

 separate publication of the Proceedings should be discontinued if the Government 

 declined to increase the statutory grant. As no decisicm of the (government was 

 available until the month of October, it was found impossible to issue any part 

 of the Proceedings in advance of Vol. 45 of the Transactions, now being printed, 

 and they will consequ?ntly appear together, as was the uniform practice until 

 a few years ago. Personally, I trust that no attempt will be made to revive the 

 plan of issuing the P)-oceedings in parts in advance of the Transactions proper, 

 especially as it inevitably leads to greatly increased expenditure on the least 

 important part of the Institute's publications. As I remarked in my address of 

 last year, the greater part of the material printed therein is of ephemeral value. 

 No particular interest and no scientific importance can be attached to the minutes 

 of the meetings of the various incorporated Societies ; and the abstracts given of 

 scientific papers printed outside the Dominion need not be nearly so long as many 

 of those which have been printed. In most cases the title of the memoir and the 

 name of the publication in which it appears is all that is required. And any short 

 papers which possess permanent value should form part of the Transactions proper, 

 and should not be consigned to the comparative obscurity of the Proceedings. 

 Almost a quarter of the last-issued volume is composed of the Proceedings, a pro- 

 portion which appears to be extravagantly large. In my opinion, it would be far 

 better to cease publishing the Proceedings altogether, and to apply the funds thus 

 saved to the quarterly or half-yearly publication of the Transactions. 



The report of the Publication Committee, which has been duly placed before 

 you, contains several matters which require careful attention. I quite agree with 

 "the Committee in considering that the list of earthquakes recorded in New Zea- 

 land in each year should find a place in the Transactions, in which such lists were 

 printed for many years in succession. Their absence from recent volumes has to 

 my own knowledge caused inconvenience to several inquirers. 



The suggestion made that Mr. H. N. Dixon's papers on the Mosses of the 

 Dominion should be published in bulletin form will, I hope, be favourably enter- 

 tained by the Board. The opportunity of having a practical review of our moss 

 flora made by an acknowledged authority at no expense beyond the cost of publica- 

 tion is not one which should be allowed to pass by. The proposal to print Major 

 Broun's papers in Indletin form stands in a precisely similar position. After the 

 highly favourable report on the character of his work placed before the Board last 

 year it is certainly desirable that his papers should be printed as rapidly as the 

 funds of the Institute will allow. 



The reference made to the uncertain practice of authors in citing the annual 

 volumes of Transactions should be followed by some definite action. Why should 

 not a clause drawing attention to the facts be inserted in the " Memorandum for 

 Authors of Papers" which is now regularly prefixed to the Transactions? As 

 matters are at present, the incorrect practice of quoting the year during which the 

 paper is read, instead of the year of publication, causes much unnecessary trouble, 

 and gives rise to wrong ideas on questions of priority. 



Among the reports presented to you is one from Mr. Hamilton, as Librarian 

 of the Institute. Now, I need say but little about the condition of the library. 

 We all know that it is most inadequately housed and inconveniently arranged ; 

 that it is stored in a wooden building that might any day be destroyed by fii'e ; 

 that it requires the constant care and attention of some competent person. To my 

 mind, the present state of the library is a disgrace to both the Government and 

 the Institute, and should be rectified as soon as possible. Mr. Hamilton has sug- 

 gested that the Institute should support the proposal made to I'arliament in the 

 report of the Museum and Scientific Departments Committee, where it is recom- 

 mended that the whole of the scientific literature belonging to the Government, 

 together with the library of the Institute, should be conjoined to form a general 

 library of scientific works. There is much to be said in favour of such a scheme, 

 for the Institute is without any funds from which it could erect a library building 

 of its own ; in fact, it cannot even provide for the proper superintendence of its 

 library. The subject is a little complicated on account of the number of inde- 

 pendent libraries which it is proposed to include in the scheme, and also from the 

 uncertainty respecting the ownership of some of the books ; but these are difficulties 

 which tact and careful negotiation would probably remove. In any case, the 

 subject has to be faced, and I commend the report to your earnest consideration. 



I regret that I have no fresh information of my own respecting the proposed 

 visit of the British Association in 1914. I understand, however, that two members 

 of this Board who have recently visited Sydney have had an interview with the 



