H.—26

1877. NEW ZEALAND.

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE, 1876-77.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

Since the last annual report, meetings of the Board were held on the following dates:—]9th September, and 19th December, 1876; 17th May, and 9th July, 1877. The following members of tho Board retired in conformity with the sixth clause of the Act, and were on tho 11th January, 1877, reappointed by His Excellency the Governor—viz., the Hon. Mr. Waterhouse, the Hon. Mr. Stafford, arrd Dr. Hector. The elected Governors by the incorporated societies, in accordance with clause 7, were Mr. J. C. Crawford, Mr. J. T. Thomson, aird Mr. T. Kirk. Under Statute IV. of the Rules of the Institute, the under-mentioned were elected honorary members of the New Zealand Institute: The Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., P.R.S.; Professor Etheridge, P.R.S.; arrd Dr. S. Berggreu. The roll of the Institute now numbers as follows:— Honorary members ... ... ... ... ... 25 Ordinary Members. Auckland Institute ... ... ... ... ... 285 Hawke Bay Philosophical Institute ... ... ... ... 69 Wellington Philosophical Society ... ... ... ... 224 Nelson Association ... ... ... ... ... 50 Westland Institute ... ... ... ... ... 76 Canterbury Philosophical Institute ... ... ... ... 95 Otago Institute ... ... ... ... ... 231 Total • ... ... ... ... ... 1,055 Copies of Vol. IX. have been as usual distributed to the members and in accordance with the free list appended to the volume, the edition having been increased from 1,000 to 1,200 volumes to meet the increased demand. Tho publication of the volume for 1876 (IX.) was commenced in December of that year, but owing to the large increase in the number of original articles, and also to the fact of an additional number of papers being sent in when the volume was considerably advanced, it was not completed until the end of May, 1877. The late date at which some papers reached the Editor also prevented the thorough classification of the contents of the volume; and it would greatly facilitate publication if future communications to the different affiliated societies were forwarded to the Manager of the Institute immediately after they have been read before the society. It may be stated, in illustration of the necessity for such a practice being adopted, that when the printing of Vol. IX. was begun the amount of manuscript in hand would not have made more than two hundred pages. The ninth volume is the most voluminous of any hitherto issued, containing no less than 96 articles, 30 plates, and 721 pages letterpress. As compared with last year's issue, the sections of the work are as under: —

1877. 1876. Miscellaneous ... ... ... ... 316 pages. 179 pages. Zoology ... ... ... ... 173 „ 131 „ Botany ... ... ... ... 61 „ 31 „ Chemistry ... ... ... ... 7 „ 20 „ Geology ... ... ... ... 42 ~ 39 „ Proceedings ... ... ... ... 62 „ 50 „ Appendix ... ... ... ... 63 „ 21 „ 724 471 I.—H. 26,