WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



First Meeting: 13th June, 1S88. 



W. M. Maskell, F.E.M.S., President, in the chair. 



New Members. — T. D. McDougal, W. B. Hudson, and 

 A. Boardman. 



Inaugural addi-ess by the President, W. M, Maskell, 

 F.K.M.S. 



Abstract. 



The President, after thanking the Society for the honour done to 

 him by his election, proceeded to deliver the annual address. He began 

 by congratulating the members of the New Zealand Institute upon the 

 appearance of tlie twentieth volume of " Transactions," and therefore 

 upon the completion of twenty years of good and solid work for the benefit 

 of the colony — work undertaken without any view to emolument or reward, 

 and solely with the intention of disseminating useful information. At 

 the same time he recognised that there was some foundation for the 

 complaint often made that the "Transactions" contained almost too 

 much of the purely natural and physical sciences. This may have been 

 inevitable in tlie past ; but perhaps the time may have arrived when an 

 extension of work might be brought about, and he hoped to be able to 

 suggest some plan during the year for encouraging young men to take up 

 other lines of study, and to publish their results. Little or no assistance 

 could be hoped for from the Colonial Legislature, which was now cutting 

 everything down to the lowest limit, and which evinced no disposition to 

 liberality towards learning. Tlie vexatious restrictions to which respect- 

 able citizens were subjected if they desired to make good use of the 

 library which the colony had given to Parliament, were an evidence 

 that the Legislature could not be in the least relied upon to help the 

 Institute, even though it was demonstrable that the " Transactions " were 

 capable of being directly profitable from an educational point of view. 

 Still, perhaps a good deal of difficulty undoubtedly arose from the charac- 

 ter of the young men of New Zealand, who certainly did not seem to 

 show much inclination to intellectual pursuits. Athletics and, perhaps^ 

 practical business seemed to absorb their entire attention ; and if soma 

 addicted themselves at all to study this was probably in the great 

 majority of cases only with an eye to the positions and the salaries to be 

 gained by it. Finis scicntice opes : the test of knowledge is the money 

 to be made from it. Such seemed to be the philosophy of young New 

 Zealand. 



Passing to the scientific portion of his address, the President drew 

 attention chiefly to the branch of study which he had himself followed — 

 microscopical investigation. He began with the seeming paradox that^ 

 whilst the microscope since its invention has taught us very much, it had 

 also taught us very little. In the improvement of mechanical appliances 

 and adaptations the advance of the microscope had been most wonderful, 

 and an illustration of this was afforded by the comparison of a microscope 

 by a modern maker, exhibited on the table, with the model of a microscope 

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