524 Proceedings. 



Sir James Hector said he knew the caves, which were of interest on- 

 acciunt of fossil remains recovered from them, including bones of the- 

 Paleudyptes, an extinct penguin over 7 ft. high. The limestone forma- 

 tion in which these caves occurred overlaid the great coal-measures of the 

 Grey district. He described the remarkable fault in the limestone 

 range, which had developed into a rift 700 ft. deep, through which, 

 in ancient times, the waters of the Grey had been diverted from theiu' 

 former channel. 



Mr. C. E. Adams exliibited some of the powers of a calcu- 

 lating-machine by a Eussian inventor, which possessed re- 

 markable powers of multiplying, dividing, summing up succes- 

 sive totals, and extracting roots. 



Sir James Hector said that twenty-five years ago Mr. Leonard 

 Stowe, Clerk to the General Assembly, devised and patented a very 

 similar piece of mechanism. He still possessed the original model. 



The President said the machine illustrated what a purely mechanical 

 operation computation really was. The amount of unnecessary drudgery 

 saved by a machine such as this to those who had to deal continually 

 with large figures, besides its freedom from liability to error, made it 

 exceedingly valuable. It was an interesting fact that many illustrious 

 mathematicians were deficient in the mechanical skill necessary to com- 

 pute correctly. He mentioned several great names, including Helmholtz,. 

 who, as he would insist on doing his own blackboard-work when lecturing, 

 usually made an error in his first attempt at multiplication, and spent a 

 good part of the rest of his time in trying to find where it occurred. 



The President, Professor Easterfield, exhibited a tool in the- 

 new " high-speed steel," forwarded by a friend in Sheflield. 



He said that the new steel, which promised to bring about vast 

 industrial changes, as it could do such work as the turning of propeller- 

 shafts at five times the rate of the best ordinary steel, owed its quality 

 to the admixture of a small but definite proportion of tungsten, and 

 possibly of chromium, and also to a difference in manufacture. 

 Ordinary steel was spoiled if heated beyond a dull red ; the new steel 

 was heated to whiteness, and cooled simply by a steady blast of cold 

 air. Water was necessary in grinding ordinary steel ; it must not be 

 used with the new, which was ground dry on an emery wheel, red- 

 hot sparks flying off the wnilo. If overheated in working steel tools 

 became useless ; the new steel tools bad been shown at work lioC 

 with friction, and swiftly winding off blue shavings from a rotary 

 shaft. He was pleased to say that this vast improvement had been 

 brought about by British firms. 



Sir James Hector remarked that scheelite and wolfram, the ores 

 yielding tungsten, were abundant in New Zealand. 



Sir James Hector explained a number of natural-history 

 exhibits, including the rare South Pacific cod, a stray specimen 

 of whicli is sometimes stranded at Island Bay after a gale ; 

 and a German owl, only distinguishable from the raorepork of 

 Australasia by a lighter colour in the plumage of the back. 



Sir James Hector said that, with the permission of the 

 meeting, lie would like to make a few remarks. He said, — 



It is thirty-five years since I was first connected with this Society. I 

 now have to leave. T suppose I shall never have the opportunity of meet- 

 ing you again. It is a great strain. Bat these things cannot be avoided. 

 We grow old, and have to leave the field to younger and better men. 1 do. 



