The Society met monthly. The earliest papers were " Chinese 

 in Singapore," Mr. J. D. Vaughan; Malay Proverbs, Sir W. E. 

 (then Mr.) Maxwell; "Notes on Gutta and Caoutchouc in the 

 Malay Peninsula " — with no foreknowledge however of the Hevea 

 brasiliensis ; and a notice was issued as to the method of collecting 

 vocabularies for comparison. 



By May Oth, communication lias been established with the 

 Royal Asiatic Society of London, agreeing to exchange publications. 

 The present full name of the Society was adopted. Languages were 

 fairly recognised and a paper from the first honorary member, Mr. 

 M. Maclay was entitled " The dialects of the Melanesian tribes in 

 the Malay Peninsula." Three papers were read and four native 

 gentlemen elected. 



The first rules of the Society state that the objects of the 

 Society shall be " The Investigation of Subjects connected with the 

 Straits of Malacca and the neighbouring Countries; (b) publication 

 of papers in a journal; (c) formation of a library of books. 



Rule 25 provides that " occasional popular lectures upon 

 Literary or Scientific subjects may be delivered, under the sanction 

 of the Council on evenings other than those appointed for General 

 Meetings of the Society.** This rule has never been put into oper- 

 ation, to the detriment of the educative value of the Society, I 

 venture to think." A few years ago the .Council declined to have an 

 important public lecture on Malarial Mosquitoes by a Medical ex- 

 pert, delivered under its auspices; and still more recently on a-pro- 

 posal for popular lectures 1913-14. it was thought that they "can- 

 not be arranged with success." The idea seemed to be that if 

 lectures were popular, they could not be exact enough to satisfy the 

 literary and scientific instincts of the Council, after a reply to a 

 member " that the subject had not been lost sight of." 



The Society was now in full swing. The first year's work was 

 prodigious, and if similar energy has not been alwa} T s shown during 

 the 40 years of the Society there has never been a cessation of work, 

 as a glance at the contents of the 71 numbers of the Journal, and 

 especially No. 51 — the index of the first fifty numbers — will show. 

 A note should be kept of the completion of No. 100, in order that 

 a second (or preferably complete index) may then he issued. Mr. 

 Barnes, who compiled the index, made no attempt to compile a 

 subject index but placed them under appropriate headings. These 

 naturally fall into two classes, Physical and Literary, the former 

 embracing natural history, philosophy, medicine, improvements of 

 the Arts, and whatever is comprehended in the general term of 

 physics. Subjects under the second head would be literature, 

 philology, history, antiquities and ethnology — to which may 

 be added recording knowledge for the use of future generations. 



Very much has been done by members of the Society on the 

 literary side. The Malay language and literature, such as it is, 

 has been studied and recorded; Malay Customs and Amusements, 



