for collecting and recording scientific information in the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago/' Possibly the meeting- had not con- 

 sidered the " literary " branch of the Society, although with Mr. 

 Hose, then Archdeacon, Mr. 1). F. A. Hervey, Mr. W. E. Maxwell, 

 and Mr. W. A. Pickering, the thought of this important branch of 

 work must have been present in their minds. 



The provisional committee met again on Jan. 21st 1878, and 

 the draft rules having been agreed to, the first election of officers 

 took place, and an Editorial Committee was chosen. 



The Inaugural Address was delivered at the meeting of Feb. 

 28th 18 78, at which meeting 35 members were elected. Also Mr. 

 Miklucho-Maclay, a Russian traveller who had extensively explored 

 the Malay Peninsula and the Coasts of New Guinea, was elected 

 an Honorary Member of the Society. And Mr. Skinner exhibited 

 a sketch map of the Peninsula, which was to occupy so much of the 

 Society's energy in coming years. 



Archdeacon Hose's inaugural address can be read in No. 1 of 

 the Journal. Like all the addresses of the founder of the Society, 

 it was markedly scholarly, and I would fain quote it at length, but 

 time forbids. These points are striking: the praise he had for Mr. 

 J. R. Logan, who for fifteen years edited 'The Journal of the Indian 

 Archipelago ' in Penang and was a first Vice President in Penang ; 

 the hope he expressed that the resident families of the Straits, the 

 Baumgartens, the iVeubronners, the Westerhouts would continue to 

 add to the common knowledge ; the stress he laid on the value of 

 association in stimulating the accumulation and record of facts ; his 

 plans for the journal a six-monthly issue to begin with, as a chief 

 instrument in the work of the Society; co-operation With the Raffles 

 Library, which is to this day a valuable feature in the Society's work ; 

 the need for study of the developments of Islam among the races of 

 this part of the world — the Society has not done too much in this 

 respect; the field there is in the Malay language for study, in which 

 he himself excelled; the development of the Native States then first 

 associated with the Colony by the inauguration of the Residential 

 System by Sir Andrew Clarke; the geography of the Peninsula, 

 about which little was known : the map with immense spaces entirely 

 blank, which map was to play so important a part in the work of 

 the Society. 



The inaugural address was a great and useful stimulant and 

 should be read by young members keen on co-operating in the 

 plans there sketched out. 



Besides the inaugural address on' Feb. 28th, 1878, Mr. A. M. 

 Skinner, whose work in the Society was mainly geographical, in- 

 troduced "The Map" which has been so useful to the public, so 

 profitable to the Society, absorbing so much of its time. A paper 

 which recalls the local controversy of a few years ago "Breeding 

 Pearls of Borneo" was read by Dr. Dennys. 



