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 200 pages.

The ninth volume is the most voluminous of any hitherto issued, containing no less than 96 articles, 30 plates, and 724 pages of letter-press.

As compared with last year's issue, the sections of the work are as under:—

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The Transactions only were published in the first issue of bound volumes. A second part, containing the Proceedings of the various Incorporated Societies, is now printed.

During the past year the Governors have had an analytical index prepared, embracing the first eight volumes of the Transactions, which will be issued to members at cost price.

The following volumes are now on hand:—Vol. I., second edition, 540; Vol. II., 3; Vol. III., 3; Vol. IV., 8; Vol. V., 75; Vol. VI., 60; Vol. VII., 200; Vol. VIII, 28; and of Vol. IX., after distribution to members of the Institute, 150 copies.

The Honorary Treasurer's statement of the accounts of the Institute is appended, and shows that there is a balance to the credit of the Institute of £123 9s. 4d.

The progress reports of the various departments under the Manager are also attached.

The library of the Institute has received upwards of 400 volumes by gift during the past year.

James Hector, Manager.

Approved by the Board,

Normanby, President.

29th August, 1877.

Museum.

From the 9th July, 1876, to the present date, 14,500 visitors have entered their names in the book kept in the Museum-hall for that purpose.

There have been 41,159 specimens received into the Museum during 1876–77, 12,159 of which are specimens collected by officers of the Geological Survey Staff.

Herbarium.—The Herbarium has undergone little change since last report; specimens of several local plants have been added by the department, and a collection containing 40 specimens of South Island species has been presented by Captain Campbell-Walker, of the Forest Department, through Mr. T. Kirk.

The presentation, referred to in last report, by the Trustees of the British Museum, arrived during the year in good condition, containing about 28,000 species of European and other plants, but, owing to the want of a suitable place where they can be conveniently referred to, they still remain unpacked.

In connection with the Herbarium Department, a collection of seeds and products, including a large number of pine cones, have been arranged in the north gallery of the Museum, classified in their natural orders and named.

During the year about 50 plates have been lithographed, including the illustrations for Vol. IX. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. Sixty maps and sections have been prepared for the Geological Survey Reports; and the first part of a descriptive work on the Grasses of New Zealand, containing 10 folio plates and letter-press, has been prepared by Mr. John Buchanan, F.L.S., Botanist and Draughtsman to the Geological Survey Department.

Natural History Collections.—The show-cases ordered in London, and those received from the Philadelphia Exhibition, have now been placed in the Museum, and additional accommodation for the display of specimens has been gained by the erection of wall cases round the whole extent of the gallery. The contents of the Museum are now set out on a general plan, although the minute arrangement and cataloguing of the specimens is far from complete. It is intended that the central part of the hall should be devoted to general typical and foreign collections; the north wing to the illustration of the natural history of New Zealand, zoology on the ground floor, and botany in the gallery; while the whole of the south wing is devoted to the collections made in the course of the geological survey of the colony.

A new edition of the Catalogue of the Museum, which will be framed on the complete prospective arrangement, is in preparation.

distributed from the horizon of the greensands and Saurian beds, immediately overlying the coal up to the grey marls, that closes the cretaceo-tertiary series in this district.

Collections have also been made from many localities in the interior in the district between the Manawatu Gorge and Napier, and much valuable information gained for the proper arrangement of the beds of tertiary age. The results obtained, which will be found in the Geological Survey Reports for the current year, show that the Scinde Island shell limestones and underlying fossiliferous sands and gravels belong to the horizon of the “tufaceous clays and lignitiferous deposits” of newer pliocene age (see Reference to Geological Map, 1873), while the Te Aute and Manawatu Gorge limestones represent the Wanganui series; the Taipos or Hawke Bay series of the map being the equivalent of the Awamoa or Pareora beds, which form the base of the Kanieri series in the South Island. There is, therefore, no stratigraphical evidence of the existence of the Ahuriri formation as proposed by Capt. Hutton, so that his later views on the subject, published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (Vol. IX., page 590), are confirmed so far as to exclude that term from future geological classifications.

From Whangarei, collections were also made from the beds overlying the coal, correlating these with the island sandstone horizon of the West Coast. The occurrence of a second or lower limestone was also traced here, replacing the coal in certain localities.

An examination of the country was made between Opotiki and the East Cape, but the impracticable character of the country precluded the forwarding of collections from there. The work has gone to connect the geological structure of this block of country with that previously surveyed between Poverty Bay and the East Cape.

At the present time all the collections of fossils have been worked out and the genera roughly determined, the further work of classifying these for comparison and description being now in progress.

The following general Reports have been printed during the past year, and will be shortly ready for issue:—

Progress Report 1873–74, 164 pp., 15 plates and maps^*

" 1874–76, 191 pp., 16 "

" 1876–77, 157 pp., 38 "

Meteorology.

The stations at which observations are made are fourteen in number—viz., Mongonui, Auckland, Taranaki, Napier, Wanganui, Wellington, Nelson, Cape Campbell, Christchurch, Bealey, Hokitika, Dunedin, Queenstown, and Wallacetown.

The monthly returns from these stations are forwarded to the Head Office, and an abstract of the whole prepared each month for publication in the New Zealand Gazette. The biennial Report for 1873–74 has been issued in the pamphlet form, and the same Report for 1875–76 is being prepared. The Results of Meteorological Observations taken at all the Stations in New Zealand, for 1876, have been printed, and incorporated with the Registrar General's Statistics for that year.

A monthly report is also furnished of the climate at six of the principal stations, for publication with the monthly vital statistics. A return, giving the daily meteorological readings, with averages and remarks, for the Head Office at Wellington, is printed monthly in the newspapers. The usual abstract of the climate of New Zealand for 1876 has been supplied for Vol. IX. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.

Astronomical.—Time Ball Observatory.

The Observatory is in good order, the astronomical clock being now in an excellent state of adjustment, with a steady rate. All the other instruments are in good condition. Rating time is given to the shipping by the starting clock and time-ball at least once a week at Wellington, due notice being given in the morning papers. Mean time is also transmitted to Lyttelton; but, as it is not by the automatic clock, the same accuracy cannot be obtained.

The observations are, as hitherto, chiefly taken by the Ven. Archdeacon Stock, B.A., assisted by Mr. J. Kebbell, who is a most skilful and enthusiastic amateur.

The only extra work at the Observatory during the past year was the search for the supposed intra-mercurial planet, which was made at the request of the Astronomer Royal, and in which I had the cordial assistance of Mr. W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S., and Mr. J. Newton Coleridge, C.E., whose experience, as amateur photographers, was of great service on such an occasion.

Laboratory.

The following is a summary of analyses performed in the Colonial Laboratory during the past year:—

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