ANNUAL MEETING. 63 
advantage, be more fully practised, as it permits of the 
permanent record of facts, often apparently trivial in themselves, 
but usually of considerable value to future investigators; and 
it is one which especially commends itself to Members who 
reside or travel in the country districts. 
Your Council would direct your attention to the prepon- 
derance of biological subjects brought under your notice, and 
would hope that in future a Society, naving very general aims, 
and composed of members representing many different pro- 
fessions, will be the means’ of publishing researches in many 
other branches of science. Such are the theoretical sciences, and 
Astronomy, Meterology, Geodesy, Geology, Geography, and 
Ethnology, with the different sub-departments of investigation 
which they comprise. They would, especially in a Society 
containing amongst its Members a large proportion of medical 
men, insist on the value of an investigation into the pathology 
of diseases, or phases of disease, peculiar to the Colony, as well 
as of its native materia medica. 
So fully impressed is your Conncil with the importance of 
educing research in the directions indicated that, after mature 
consideration, they recommend the adoption of a rule providing 
for the formation of sections, or committees, to deal with special 
branches or subjects of inquiry, and they hope that the function 
of the Society may thus be more satisfactorily fulfilled. 
The first volume of the Society’s Proceedings has been issued 
40 the Members, and distributed to societies and public scientific 
institutions, many of which have furnished in return publica- 
tions, whilst others have expressed their willingness to do so. 
By this system of exchange, and by the liberality of private 
donors, the library of the Society has been enriched by the 
reception of 100 books, pamphlets, or papers—received from 24 
Societies, 4 Government Departments, and 19 individuals. 
Particulars of these donations have from time to time been 
