LVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



tliat the Council would not fail to draw the attention of members to the 

 very important subject to which his letter referred. 



14. — British Columbia Academy of Science. 



From our most distant Province comes information which the 

 Council are persuaded will be received by the Society with pleasure, to 

 the effect, namely, that steps have been taken to establish an institution 

 to be known as the British Columbia Academ}^ of Science. It will 

 add to the pleasure to know that the first President of iJk- new Academy 

 is our own esteemed colleague the Eev. G. W. Taylor, of Nanaimo, and 

 that its first honorary secretary is Mr. E. M. Bunvash, the son ,of our 

 equally esteemed colleague, the Eev. Chancellor Burwash. The name of 

 the Academy sufficiently indicates the objects at whicli it will aim, and 

 every member of this Society will most heartily wish it the fullest 

 measure of success. 



15. — The Honorary Vice-President of the Society. 



It will be remembered that at the last Annual Meeting of the 

 Society the office of Honorary Vice-President was respectfully tendered 

 to that eminent Canadian — eminent by character, ability and public 

 services — Lord Strathcona. Not long afterwards the President had the 

 pleasure of receiving his Lordship's acceptance of the office. When our 

 academic year was drawing to a close the President, who during his 

 term of office had been studying more closely the whole action of the 

 Society, thought it his duty to address a letter to Lord Strathcona im- 

 parting such information regarding it as it might be desirable for his 

 Lordship as our Honorary Vice-President and as, in a manner, repre- 

 senting the Society in Great Britain, to possess. This letter is appended, 

 and it will be seen that it sets forth somewhat fully the work in which 

 the Society is engaged, the relations it sustains with similar institutions 

 throughout the world, the scope assigned to its labours by its act of in- 

 corporation, and the reasons which have hitherto impeded in a certain 

 measure the complete fulfilment of all its legitimate duties and func- 

 tions. It is hoped that this exposition of the status, actual operations, 

 aims, and possibilities of the Society will be regarded by the members 

 as satisfactory and opportune. 



Letter from the President to the Honorary President. 



Ottawa, 9th April, 1909. 

 Pear Lord Strathcona : — 



The near approach of the Annual Meeting of the Eoyal Society of 

 Canada, of which 1 have the honour this year to be President, has sug- 



