Report of the Honorary Editor for Year Ended March 31, 1956.

On account of the shortage of finance for publications, it has been impossible to maintain, during the past twelve months, the publication time of six months attained a year ago in the Society's Transactions. The delay between receipt of papers and their appearance in print has extended again to twelve months, but with the increased finance which is to become available next year the Editors hope to retrieve this position.

Bulletin No. 5, “Handbook of New Zealand Mosses,” by Mr. G. O. K. Sainsbury, F.L.S., was issued in May last. A printed order form for this Bulletin which was inserted in the Transactions has served to publicise this Handbook, and a steady flow of orders for it is reaching the Secretary's office.

Bulletin No. 6, “Studies of Mosquitoes and Freshwater Ecology in the South Pacific,” by Dr. Marshall Laird, was issued in January of this year.

Transactions. The first three parts of Volume 83 were issued in June, September, and January respectively; Part 4 should appear during April of this year. With Part 1 of Volume 83 a change was made in the colour and form of the cover for the Transactions, and this change has met with wide approval. With Volume 84 a new format of type will be introduced which is clearer and easier to read than the type which has been in use for the last decade. As this type became available during the current year it was used to print Bulletin 6, wherein members of the Council may see in advance the improvement which will result in the general appearance of the Transactions from Volume 84 onwards.

The pressure on the Society from authors for publication of their papers in the Transactions and Bulletins continues to rise, and the following analysis of the position should, I think, indicate to Council members the problem confronting the Editor.

For the year ended March 31, 1953, the Society was able to print 420 pages in its Transactions. This was nearly 200 pages short of the actual demand. In 1954 it printed 664 pages which, although an increase on the previous year, was still 120 pages behind the demand on publication space. In the year ended March 31, 1955, through the extra finance made available in the increased grant, it printed 1219 pages. However, 150 pages of this formed the report of the 8th N.Z. Science Congress, the costs of which were met from Congress funds, so that the net pages printed from Society's funds amounted to 1069, which almost met the actual demand on publication space. At the present time, March 1956, the actual demand on publication space in terms of pages required for papers actually in the Editor's hands amounts to 864 pages in addition to the 577 pages already printed during the period since March 31, 1955. This means that the total demand on publication space in the Transactions for the year ended March 31, 1956, if it could have been met, amounted to 1441 pages. The estimated cost of printing this amount is £3,262 6s 8d, to which must be added £1,500 for the cost of tables, graphs, line-drawings, half-tone illustrations, and contingencies such as authors' corrections, cost of reprints, package and posting, making a total amount of £4,712 6s 8d.

The growing demand for publication space in the Transactions has been the major financial item in the Society's budget. In the past this increased demand has been met by more severe editing, deleting of illustrations, raising the standards, increasing the levy on members, and.