138 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIX. 



8. Mr. D. B. J a yatilaka proposed the adoption of the Report. 



9. Mr. E. W. Perera seconded. — Carried. 



Election of Office-Bearers. 



10. Mr. R. H. Ferguson proposed that the following Office- 

 Bearers be elected for the year : — 



President. — The Hon. Mr. J. Ferguson, C.M.G. 



Vice-Presidents. -r-The Hon. Mr. J. P. Lewis, M.A., CCS. 

 Dr. A. Willey, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. ; and Mr. P. Freudenberg, J.P. 



Council, 



Mr. C M. Fernando, M.A., 

 LL.M. 



Mr. A. M. Gunasekera, Muda- 

 liyar 



Dr. A. J. Chalmers, M.D., 

 F.R.C.S. 



Mr. C Drieberg, B.A., F.H.A.S. 



Mr. R. G. Anthonisz, Govern- 

 ment Archivist. 



Dr. W. H. de Silva, M.B., CM., 

 F.R.C.S. 



The Hon. Mr. S. C. Obeyesekere. 

 The Hon. Mr. P. Arunachalam, 



M.A., CCS. 

 Mr. Simon de Silva, Gate Muda- 



liyar, Chief Translator to 



Government. 

 The Hon. Mr. G. M. Fowler, 



CM.G. 



The Hon. Mr. Justice A. Wood 



Renton. 

 Mr. P. E. Pieris, M.A., CCS. 



Honorary Treasurer. — Mr. Gerard A. Joseph. 



Honorary Secretaries. — Messrs. J. Harward, M.A., H. C. P. 

 Bell, and Gerard A. Joseph. 



11. Dr. A. Nell seconded. — Carried. 



The President's Speech. 



12. The President : — It is my pleasing duty once more to 

 return thanks in the name of the Office-Bearers of the Society for 

 the honour you have just conferred in unanimously electing us to 

 our several posts. We all trust that the minor changes made 

 during the year may tend to the increased usefulness of our Society. 



We begin the year with 213 members — a number which com- 

 pares favourably with that of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 

 which has 407 on its roll. 



We, in Ceylon, have certainly had great encouragement of late 

 in the number of acceptable Papers made available, there being 

 no fewer than thirteen, as you have heard, ready for reading. 



One by Mr. D. W. Ferguson of Croydon, now in the hands of 

 the printer, is on the " First Discovery of Ceylon by the Portu- 

 guese in 1506," and was sent out by the author so far back as 

 May last, but we regret could not be read or disposed of, so as 

 to be included in our volume for 1906, to which, of course, it 

 properly belongs. The death of the Government Printer and 

 some difficulty in deciding about fitting illustrations in the absence 

 of Mr. Harward and myself in England caused delay. 



