Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 



PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY. 



Fourth Meeting : 2nd August, 1911. 



Present: Mr. A. M. Wright, President, in the chair, and eighty others. 



New Member. — Mr. 8. S. Blackburne. 



Kapiti Island Sanctuary. — The following resolution was carried : 

 ' That the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury desires to express its 

 cordial approval of the enlightened action of the Government in declaring 

 Kapiti Island a sanctuary for the birds and animals of New Zealand, 

 and hopes that the proposal to use it as a holiday resort as reported in 

 the Lyttelton Times of 1st August is not seriously contemplated. Its 

 reservation as a sanctuary is already widely known and cordially 

 approved by naturalists throughout the world, and specially so seeing 

 that it is ideally situated for the purpose. Its use in the manner pro- 

 posed not only would inevitably undo all the good which has resulted 

 from its original reservation, but it would be universally regarded as 

 a retrograde step, and out of keeping with the admirable policy of the 

 Government in providing adequately for our native fauna and flora." 



Paper. — Observations concerning Evolution derived from Ecological 

 Studies in New Zealand." By Dr. L. Cockayne, F.L.S. 



The paper on which the address was based had been previously circulated 

 amongst members, as the details were too numerous and technical for submitting to 

 a mixed audience. The following heads were dealt with : Elementary species, 

 variation, mutation, epharmony, persistent juvenile forms, hybridization, the 

 struggle lor existence, distribution of species, and evolution in the genus Veronica. 

 The address was illustrated by forty lantern-slides. 



A critical discussion followed, in which Drs. Hilgendorf and Chilton and 

 Messrs. Laing and Andersen took part. 



Fifth Meeting : 6th September, 1911 . 



Present : Mr. A. M. Wright, President, in the chair, and forty others. 



New Member. — Mr. T. D. Burnett. 



Addresses. — 1. "Bogs and their Bearing on Climate." By Mr. It. 

 Speight. 



The lecturer gave a resume of the work which has been done recently in Sweden, 

 Scotland, and the United States in this department of science, and sketched the 

 general tendency of the conclusions as to the variations of climate since the last 

 period of glaciation. A number of lantern-slides were shown illustrative of bogs 

 and peat-deposits in various parts of the world, including New Zealand, and the 

 lecturer expressed a hope that it might be possible to examine some of our own 

 bogs by modern methods. 



2. 'Modifications of Deep-sea Fish to suit their Environment." 

 By Mr. Edgar P. Waite. 



The lecturer gave a most interesting account of the modifications of deep-sea fish 

 to adapt themselves to their condition of life, and specially to the effects of pres- 

 sure in the abyssal depths, and to the absence of light. ' A number of excellent 



