PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. lvii 
Students will already find it well classified, so as to show the products 
o! the country of scientific and economic interest to their best advantage. 
The numerous blanks are being filled as rapidly as specimens caa be 
secured, and each object is in the process of being labelled so as to give 
not only its name but a summary of such information respecting it as 
is most likely to be of use. 
On the adjacent flat the Government has provided ample library 
accommodation for the Library of the Institute and the books from the 
Legislative Library bearing on science and the arts, with a reading 
room. There is also sufficient accommodation for the Library of the 
Mining Society of the Province. In this manner all these scientific 
collections increasing from day to day, all these libraries also increasing 
from day to day, are made available freely to students, miners, 
manufacturers, and the public generally. 
Under the capable management of Mr. Piers, these institutions are 
not only sure to give satisfaction to the Government, but to the public, 
who are thus admitted to invaluable privileges which previously even 
members of the Institute could not avail themselves of without much 
loss of time and inconvenience to others. The Government, in 
assuming the charge of this composite Library, are able to open to the 
public the invaluable, modern, and rapidly growing library of the 
Institute ; and the members of the Institute, on the other hand, have also 
gained thereby easy access to their own literature. This co-operation of 
interests is of mutual benefit, and the Science Library and the Museum 
are likely to become an important centre for the scientific students of the 
city and the Province. The Museum is already open, and in a short 
time the Library will be in working condition. 
There are also signs that the scientific side of educational work 
throughout the Province is improving, notwithstanding the defects 
common to our schools and colleges throughout the continent. May the 
time be not far distant when our Institute may have more recruits to 
undertake the infinite range of work before us—in discovering the yet 
hidden truths of nature lying around us on every hand within our own 
Province, without a knowledge of which we cannot expect to solve 
indubitably what people call the great problems of the world. 
The President referred with regret to the loss of two invaluable 
associate members, Captain Trott, of the Cable S. S. ‘‘ Minia,” and Rev. 
Arthur C. Waghorne, who had done so much in the botanical explora- 
tion of Newfoundland. 
