xii President's Address 



furniture and improvements in the approaches to the build- 

 ing, the Council have added nothing to our house or 

 premises. But very shortly the question of additions, to 

 afford a more capacious meeting-hall or lecture-room, will 

 have to be considered : for, although this building gives us 

 more room than the house of the Royal Society does at pre- 

 sent, one cannot but admit a certain amount of regret at 

 being, by force of circumstances, driven from our home to 

 hold festival in the house of strangers. I therefore hope 

 that your Council will find some way by which, even with 

 our increased ranks, we may hold all future gatherings of 

 this kind under our own roof. 



The report of the Council has furnished you with all the 

 details of our past year's history, and I need not, therefore, 

 detain you further on the purely domestic affairs of the 

 Society. Our members will be pleased to learn that the 

 several national scientific and technical departments have 

 been in active operation during the year, and with them, as 

 with ourselves, satisfactory progress is manifested. There is 

 an undoubted and general increase in the desire for know- 

 ledge in the various pure and applied sciences, and especially 

 as applied to technical training and to the daily require- 

 ments of life. 



Some new societies for the prosecution of study and re- 

 search, more especially in the natural sciences, have come 

 into existence in the provinces, and the older societies and 

 schools are increasing in their good influence and usefulness. 



The School of Technology and Museums, presided over 

 by our talented member, Mr. Cosmo Newbery, continues 

 doing good work in our midst. The collections of the 

 Industrial and Technological Museum have been largely 

 increased during the past year by the addition of speci- 

 mens in each section, and several new divisions have 

 been formed. Amongst them, those of special note are : — 

 The manufacture of mineral and vegetable colours, new 

 ornamental and building stones, timbers from India, Fiji, 

 the Straits Settlements, and Ceylon. It may be mentioned 



