418 Proceedings. 



go far towards making this a thriving work. That it will be carried success- 

 fully to completion I am confident, and, in that case, one of the most 

 important results will be in the benefit to our stock by the additional 

 nutritive food supplies, and the benefits to the land by the freeing it from 

 the accumulation of weeds, which, in many parts of this district, in the 

 lighter soils, proves a great drawback. 



The subject of agriculture brings us immediately in contact with a 

 wonderful array of insect life, affecting our crops, our fields, and our fruits. 

 Some of them are actually beneficial to us, but the large majority are pre- 

 judicial. If we turn to some of the countries which have been ravaged by 

 pests, we will obtain some idea of their magnitude, and the great difficulties 

 and cost which have to be met before their number can be so reduced as to 

 make it possible to continue the raising of the crops. It is but a few years 

 since that the whole world was alarmed at the ravages of the Doryphora, 

 better known as the Colorado beetle. Fortunately this pest speedily suc- 

 cumbed, and the alarm abated. Again, for years we have witnessed the 

 efforts made in America and France to check the spread of the Phylloxera 

 vastatrix. The loss to France alone from this pest has been so serious as 

 to cause it to be mentioned as a national calamity ; and the German 

 Government has, after very large expenditure and repressive measures, been 

 unable to keep that country free from this terrible visitant. In New Zealand, 

 and in this district, we know that this pest has been already acclimated. 

 The manner in which this has occurred does not concern us so seriously as 

 the way in which this and several other pests may be best held in check or 

 actually exterminated. It is here that science opens up a way of com- 

 batting these plagues. It is in the study of this insect life that we may hope 

 to attain such a knowledge of their habits and enemies that will enable us to 

 ensure their destruction, while the more careful study of those plants which 

 are the most capable of resisting their aggression will make it possible, by 

 judicious selection, of reducing their harmfulness to a minimum, at the 

 same time cultivating the assistance we may obtain from protection and 

 multiplication of the insects that prey upon those which so injuriously affect 

 us. This work can only be done by the earnest efforts of our entomologists, 

 and I feel it my duty, on behalf of this Institute, to say how indebted we 

 are to the constant and earnest researches made in the study of the 

 Coleoptera of New Zealand by Mr. T. Broun. In the present aspect of know- 

 ledge, it is the specialist alone who can make any advance in original 

 research. To the student who has chosen for his theme chemistry, physics, 

 agriculture, or mechanics, the prizes which await his earnest efforts are 

 certain and great, but to those who enter the arena of original research in 

 many of the other branches of science the honours are few, and these alone 

 are the reward. 



The study of entomology may prove of great value, not alone in the 

 effort to rid ourselves of a present evil, but to guard against its importation. 

 I have spoken of a few of the pests which affect our success in agriculture, 

 but there is one which, though happily not a denizen of Australasia, may 

 become so unless sufficient supervision is exercised, and the effect of its 

 becoming acclimatised in Australia would be ruinous beyond calculation. I 

 allude to the JEdiTpoda migratotia, better known as the locust. The im- 

 portation of this insect may not appear feasible ; but when we bear in mind 

 how close the countries of its habitat are brought to the shores of Australia 

 by means of the direct steamers, and the risks in importing the fruits of 

 those countries of also obtaining the ova or larva? of this insect, I do think 

 trouble or expense should not be considered in the efforts to keep these 

 colonies free from this terrible plague. In Cyprus, where the destructive 

 ravages of this pest have been felt severely, the British Government have at 

 great expense done much to reduce their number. In 1881, during the 

 autumn and winter, 1,330 tons of their eggs were destroyed, and 56,116 

 millions of larval locusts were destroyed by traps and screens. Some idea 

 of the extent of the operations may be gathered from the fact that in one 



