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1874. NEW ZEALAND.

SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE.

Presented to loth Houses of the General Assembly by command of His Excellency.

Geneeal Business. The Board of Governors met during the past year for the transaction of business on the 29th July, 1873, and 6th of January, 1874. The retiring members of the Board for the year were reappointed, and the Governors elected by the affiliated Societies were —Mr. Justice Chapman, Mr. Eolleston, M.H.R., and Mr. J. C. Crawford. The following foreign members were elected for the year, in accordance with Statute IV.:—Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., F.K.S.; Albert Gunther, M.D., F.R.S., &c; Eev. 0. Pickard Cambridge, M.A., C.M.Z.S. The number of members now on the roll of the Institute is as follows :— Honorary Members ... ... ... ... ... ... 18 Ordinary Members. Auckland Institute ... ... ... ... ... ... 214 Wellington Philosophical Society ... ... ... ... ... 146 Otago Institute ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 128 Philosophical Society of Canterbury ... ... ... ... ... 76 Nelson Association ... ... ... ... ... ... 59 Making a total of ... ... ... ... ... 641 The Institute has lost one foreign member during the year, by the death of Professor Louis Agassiz. Each of the members included in the above list receives a copy of the sixth volume of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Institute, free of cost. The free list, a copy of which is appended, requires seventy-nine volumes; and the remainder of the edition of 900 volumes is reserved for sale at £1 Is. each to private individuals, and at half price to local libraries in the colony. Publication op the Tbattsactions. The printing of the sixth volume was commenced in January last, but owing to the excessive demand for all kinds of labour during the present season, from the influence of which the printer's business was not exempt, the contract could not be completed so soon as usual, and the book was not issued until the end of June. Some extra delay was also caused through the late date at which the papers were received, and to allow Mr. J. T. Thomson to correct the proof sheets of his ethnographical paper; and lastly, owing to the very large number of illustrations. The volume contains 500 pages, with thirty-five plates and several woodcuts. Eighty-one articles were selected by the Board, and printed in tho volume. These are by forty-two authors, and have been arranged as follows:— Papers. Pages. Miscellaneous ... ... ... ... 28 ... 61 Zoology ... ... ... ... ... 30 ... 146 Botany ... ... ... ... ... 10 ... 44 Chemistry ... ... ... ... ... 3 ... 20 Geology ... ' ... ... ... ... 10 ... 95 Proceedings of Societies ... ... ... ... ... 88 In the Proceedings will be found abstracts of thirty-three communications, which were not considered suitable for printing in the Transactions. Mr. Thomson's paper was placed in an appendix, in order to avoid as much as possible delaying the rest of the work while the proof sheets were sent to Dunedin for revision. In the Appendix will also be found two articles not directly connected with New Zealand, and a reprint from the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," which has been made at the suggestion of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. I—H. 31.