THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT. 55 



deputation, the Ministei- has requested to be furnished with five hun- 

 dred copies of the pamphlet for distribution to the head masters of 

 the various higli schools and collegiate institutes in the Province. 

 The Council have also sent copies of the pamphlet to the Ministers of 

 Education in the other Provinces. 



It will be remembered that it was a paper by Mr. Sandford Fleming, 

 read before this Institute, copies of which were forwarded with a 

 memorial from the Institute to the Marquis of Lome, then Governor- 

 General of the Dominion of Canada, and through him to the British 

 Government, and to various foreign scientific institutions, which first 

 called prominent attention throughout the world to this subject. The 

 views then advanced by Mr. Sandford Fleming, wei'e very generally 

 accepted by scientific men in all civilized nations, the subJ3ct was 

 ' discussed at various congresses, and in October, 1884, a conference 

 was held at Washington on the invitation of the President of the 

 United States, at which twenty-five nations were represented, and 

 the proposed reforms were by it recommended for adoption by all 

 nations. Your Council have every reason to hope that the pamph- 

 let now issued will facilitate the introduction of these reforms in 

 Canada. 



A memorial was also forwai'ded to the Minister of the Interior in 

 connection with Geological and Mining afiairs, and in reply a certified 

 copy of a report of a committee of the Honorable the Privy Council, 

 approved by His Excellency the Governor-General in Council on the 

 28th September, 1887, has been received, in which it is set forth that 

 a Division of the Geological Branch of the Interior has recently been 

 organized by the appointment to the permanent stafi"of the Survey of 

 a Mining Engineer and a Mining Geologist to examine and report 

 upon the mining industi'ies of the Dominion, to collect mineral 

 statistics, and otherwise to work out the economic geology of our 

 mining districts. 



While congratulating the Institute on the increase in membership 

 and activity, the Council feels it necessary to impress upon the 

 members that much has yet to be done in the direction of the further 

 extension of the Museum and Librai-y. Our accommodation in these 

 is still inadequate, and additional shelving and cases are reqixired. 



