XIV ANNUAL REPORT. 



The following gentlemen have ceased to be members iri accord- 

 ance with Hule G : — 



A. Anson. Mohamed bin Mahboot. 

 II. Bruce. W. Krohn. 



B. Douglas. I George Mansfield. 



In the Report for 18S3J mention is made of a text book of 

 Eastern Geography which the Society had undertaken, at the 

 request of the Government, to produce. The first part of this 

 work (the Malay Peninsula and Borneo) has now been published,, 

 and the following letter regarding it has been received from the 

 Government of the Colony : — - 



" Colonial Secretary's Office, 



Singapore, \2tli February, 1885.. 



The Honorary Secretary, 



Straits Asiatic Society, Singapore. 



Sir, — I am directed by the Acting Governor to acknowledge 

 the receipt of your letter of the 29th ultimo with regard to the 

 publication of the work entitled the "Eastern Geographer," and to- 

 state that His Excellency fully recognises the valuable assistance 

 which the Society has afforded to the Government in acceding to the 

 request that it should undertake this work, and desires especially 

 to tender the cordial thanks of the Government to the Vice-Presi- 

 dent (Mr. A. M. Skinner) for the valuable results of the action of 

 the Society. 



2. The work which he has edited — the first of its kind as re- 

 gards this part of the world — wall, in His Excellency's opinion, 

 prove of very great usefulness both inside the Schools of this 

 Colony, and outside the Colony itself, where so much ignorance 

 prevails regarding the Malay Peninsula and its neighbourhood. 



3. I am to add that His Excellency concurs in the recom- 

 mendation of the Council of the Society, and will invite the Legis- 

 lative Council to vote the necessary sum to enable Mr. Stanford's 

 offer to be accepted. It appears to His Excellency that if the part 

 regarding Australia is to be omitted, as His Excellency considers 

 it should be, it may not even be necessary to pay so much as £100. 



I have, &c, 



A. P. TALBOT, 



for Acting Colonial Secretary, S. S." 



