AUCKLAND INSTITUTE. 



First Meeting : 10th June, 1907. 



Mr. E. V. Miller, President, in the chair. 



New Members. — L. Birks, C. E. Clarke, H. B. Devereux, 

 E. B. Moss, J. M. Somerville. 



The President delivered the anniversary address, taking as 

 his subject the molecular theory of matter. 



During the course of his address he showed how by the aid of this 

 theory certain properties of matter, some of them widely known, others 

 not so widely, may be explained, and how certain facts which seem at 

 first sight to be opposed to the theory appear on closer study to support 

 it. He explained the reason why the molecular theory has obtained such 

 a strong hold on the imagination of scientific workers, and in what sense 

 and subject to what reservations it may be regarded as substantially 

 true. 



The address was fully illustrated with experiments. 



Second Meeting : 8th July, 1907. 



Mr. E. V. Miller, President, in the chair. 



Paper. — "The Passing of the Maori," by the Rev. Arch- 

 deacon Walsh (p. 154). 



A lengthy discussion arose. 



Dr. Pomare, Chief Native Health Officer, admitted that Archdeacon 

 Walsh's contention was. in the main, correct. He considered that the 

 .Maori is doomed not to extinction, hut to absorption. It was inevitable 

 that where a more numerous and more vigorous race came into contact 

 with a weaker one 1 hat the weaker one must he absorbed. Already a very 

 large percentage of the Maoris in the South Island had European blood 

 in them, and t lie North Island Natives were rapidly becoming tinctured 

 with pakeha blood. He did not believe thai the Maoris would entirely 

 die out, but in the future they should tind a new race in whose veins would 

 he eommin'ded the blood of the Anglo-Saxon and the .Maori. It had taken 

 the European races hundreds nay. thousands of years to reach their 

 present standard of civilisation. The Maori race had been suddenly 



brought into the dazzling light of this civilisation, and required time to 



adapt themselves to their new surround ingS. It was a matter for great 

 regret that when the Gospel was first preached to the Maoris the laws of 

 health and cleanliness had not also been preached to them. 



Dr. Buck. Assistant Native Health Officer, supported the views ex- 

 pressed by Dr. Pomare. As for the education of tin- Maoris, it must he 

 borne in mind that until lately the class of teachers employed had not 

 been good, and, in any case, there had not been time to produce a marked 

 effect. He considered that the mental qualities of the Maori were quite 

 equal to those of average Europeans. The Polynesian race, of which 



