legends and traditions, and to some extent religion and superstition 

 have been made the subject of papers. In bulk, this side of the 

 Society's work looks well, but in the matter of religion there seems 

 to have been a want of complete and accurate observation. As the 

 first President observed " Nearly all Malays are Mohammedans and 

 people seem to consider that when they have said that, they have 

 said all that need be said on the subject." National policy not to 

 interfere with the religion of the people in our Colonies; and the 

 natural (or assumed) diffidence of the British to speak about 

 religion and belief are no doubt responsible for what looks like a 

 lost opportunity. " A man's religion is the chief fact with regard 

 to him; a man's or a nation of men's." The main literary publi- 

 cations include four Hikayat, beginning with that of the famous 

 Abdullah; four volumes of Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo- 

 China, reprinted for the Society ; a good many miscellaneous voca- 

 bularies; lists of place-names; disease-names; plant-names; Malay 

 fairy tales, etc. 'Sir W. E. Maxwell's work in this respect stands 

 easily first, and there are indications of fields yet to be worked and 

 willing workers, hut on the whole I diffidently suggest that the 

 Literary side of the Society's work as judged by publications under 

 its auspices has not come up to expectation. The author is a 

 jealous father, disinclined to share with any one or any Society the 

 honours of paternity. 



On the physical side, the Society has had the inestimable bene- 

 fit of the Government Specialists attached to the Forests and 

 Museums as very active- members. Mr. Eidley quite recently gave 

 an address on the progress made by members of the Society in the 

 different branches of physical research, and this address shonld be 

 read as part of any record of forty years of the Society. 



Let us now praise famous men. Forty years of a Society ex- 

 isting under circumstances such as ours is the equivalent of four 

 generations. I think the oldest member of the Society now in 

 Singapore is Mr. Seah Liang Seah, elected in 1888. Dr. Shellabear 

 came in in 189 i and we may hope that he will be able to return to 

 the Colony. The activities of Mr. C. J. Saunders began in 1896, so 

 that your Chairman has passed his majority, and but for the fact 

 that he is present I would speak of his constant interest in the 

 Society and regular attendance at the Council meetings as an ex- 

 emplar. 



The father of the Society is indubitably Bishop Hose, whose 

 portrait hangs in this room, and whose memory is ever-green. It 

 was to him that the Society owed its inception and much of its 

 vigour for the thirty years during which he occupied the office of 

 President, almost without a break, till the actual day of his retire- 

 ment in 1908, after forty years service in the Straits. 



In 1890 two well-known members of the Society were elected, 

 Messrs. H. N". Eidley, Mr. C. 0. Blagden; the late Mr. Arthur 

 Knight joined in 1888. He brought to the Council that long and 



