No. 12—1860-1.] PROCEEDINGS, 1861. 



ix 



The publication of the remaining chapters of the Mahdwanso, left in 

 the hands of the Executors of the late Mr. George Tumour, has engaged 

 the attention of your Committee, who have communicated to those gentle- 

 men their desire to be allowed to publish the chapters in their hands, in 

 the shape of an Appendix to the Society's Journal. To this request, 

 however, no reply has yet been received. 



The Society has also had its attention directed to the subject of {£ the 

 Fresh Water Wells of Jaftna," through a correspondence which took place 

 between Sir James Emerson Tennent and the late Dr. Buist, and which 

 correspondence will be found in the Appendix to the forthcoming issue 

 of the Society's Journal. 



Your Committee cannot omit mention of the exhibition of Ceylon 

 produce, held at the Queen's House in February last, under its direct 

 management. The time allowed for collecting the many specimens 

 exhibited was necessarily short, but your Committee were enabled by 

 the active co-operation of gentlemen at outstations, to bring together 

 a most interesting and instructive collection, illustrative of the industry 

 and resources of the Western, Central, North-Western, and Southern Pro" 

 vinces. Many of the objects exhibited have been since placed in the 

 Society's Museum, which is at length beginning to assume a proportion 

 that will soon render a Catalogue necessary. 



Your Committee have recently communicated with the chief Military 

 authorities of the Island, Avith a view to ascertaining whether there 

 would be any objection to the amalgamation of the Medical Museum with 

 that of this Society, in the event of a qualified Curator being provided 

 for the proper custody and enlargement of the collection ; and your 

 Committee, although not as yet in possession of any reply to their 

 application, have grounds for believing that their request will be com- 

 plied with. 



Since the last Anniversary Meeting the Society has lost several valued 

 members, foremost amongst whom may be named the late Sir William 

 Carpenter Rowe, whose attachment to, and exertions on, behalf of the 

 Society, are well known to all its members. 



The Society has also experienced a loss in the death of one of its oldest 

 and most industrious members, the late Mr. Simon Casie Chetty, who 

 contributed some most valuable papers to your Journal, and by these and 

 other literary labours gave evidence of not only an intimate acquaintance 

 with Tamil literature, but of a spirit of industrious research, of patient 

 investigation, and of scholarly descrimination, rarely to be met with in 

 the East, 



