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The funds at tho disposal of the Board of Governors of the Institute have consisted only of the annual parliamentary grant of £500, an annual contribution from the Wellington Philosophical Society as an equivalent for rent of the library-room and the use of the lecture-hall, and a small sum arising from the sale of volumes. Nearly the whole of the funds are spent in the printing of the volume of Transactions, only a very small amount being devoted to the maintenance of the Library-in the way of binding books. Nor is the information contained in these volumes confined to the colony, as they are widely distributed to the chief libraries in all parts of the world. Forty-seven of the most distinguished men in science and literature, who have rendered special service to New Zealand, have been elected honorary members, while there are seventy-five corresponding societies and institutions that exchange their publications with the Institute. About three hundred volumes per annum are acquired in this manner, the greater number of which have been placed in the General Assembly Library. The Museum in Wellington, though nominally under the charge of the Governors of the Institute, does not constitute a charge on their funds, but is wholly supported out of the votes of the Geological Survey Department. The labour of editing the annual volumes and the preparation of the illustrations is undertaken by the staff of the Geological Survey in addition to their other duties, and without any further remuneration; and it is chiefly owing to this circumstance that a work, which actually produces in the form of subscriptions and contributions by way of exchange of books the value of over £1,700 per annum, is produced from the grant of £500 a year. Besides the fostering of local societies the Act contemplated the establishment of technical schools throughout the colony; and at the request of tho Government a scheme was submitted by the Board on the 20th July, 1870, to provide a normal technical school and to give practical instruction in applied science at the Museum, but no funds were provided for giving effect to this scheme. The functions of the Board under the Act for promoting local institutions for instruction in science have therefore remained in abeyance, and have to some extent been superseded by subsequent legislation and endowments for mechanics' institutes, public libraries, and technical schools for art, mining, agriculture, and other branches of applied science under the control of the colleges and the Education Boards.

Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation (not given); printing (.1,300 copies), £2.

By Authority: Geoegk Didsbury, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB9l. Price, (kl~\

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