682 Neio Zealand Institute. 



information in manuscripts that, if published, would be of 

 great assistance in advancing the interests of the community. 



Each member of the scientific societies affiliated to the 

 New Zealand Institute receives a share of the parliamentary 

 grant in the form of an annual volume of the Transactions for 

 the year of all the various societies. The presentation of this 

 volume is regarded as a substantial equivalent for the sub- 

 scriptions, and the fund which is created by the subscriptions 

 is applied locally towards the maintenance .of public museums 

 and libraries in the different centres of population. In the 

 case of Auckland, for instance, the public museum is almost 

 wholly dependent on this source of revenue for its main- 

 tenance ; and, if the vote which enables the annual volume to 

 be distributed gratis is withdrawn, the Museum must either 

 be closed or some other provision made for its sujsport. 



The educational effect of this organiza.tion can hardly be 

 overestimated as a means of cultivating a love of knowledge 

 and in disseminating information. To the influence of the 

 Institute must in some degree be attributed the demand which 

 is now expressed throughout the colony for elementary in- 

 struction in science, and the general recognition in New Zea- 

 land on the part of the public that it is necessary to obtain, 

 as a branch of elementary education, the qualifications re- 

 quired for the comprehension and utilisation of the scientific 

 literature that is so characteristic a feature of the present age. 



The Institute commenced with four branch societies in 

 1869, and only 258 members, but there are now eight societies 

 affiliated, and the number of members increased to 1,327 in 

 1881, but has since fallen off to about 950, each of whom pays 

 one guinea a year, which may be considered as a voluntary 

 tax for an educational purpose. 



There have now been 1,623 original communications pub- 

 lished in twenty-three volumes of the Transactions of the 

 Institute, nearly all of which relate directly to the colony, 

 and place on record matters of fact and observation that 

 otherwise might not have been published. Of these papers 

 378 are on miscellaneous subjects, chiefly relating to the 

 ethnology of the aboriginal races, or connected with the in- 

 dustrial resources of the colony ; 613 are descriptive of the 

 zoology of New Zealand ; 203 refer to its botany ; 113 are on 

 metallurgy and chemistry in its relation to the colony ; and 

 216 are on its geology and physical geography. In addition 

 to these papers, which are published at length, abstracts of 

 about 970 different communications are given in the Proceed- 

 ings of the societies. The total number of the communica- 

 tions to the Institute has thus been 2,593. Besides which a 

 number of popular lectures are given each year under the 

 auspices of the various societies, of which no record is kept. 



