44 Proceedings. 



OTAGO INSTITUTE. 



Fourth Meeting : 1st Atigust, 1911. 



Present : Mr. A. Bathgate, President, in the chair, and about twenty 



others. 



Xew Members. — Dr. K. Church, Messrs. Sydney Beaumont, A. W. 

 Bethune, A. Davis, and W. Gillanders. 



Astronomical Society. — The chairman announced that the Astrono- 

 mical Society had accepted the proposed terms of amalgamation with the 

 Institute, and that the Society's members would shortly be elected mem- 

 bers of the Institute, forming a separate branch in the same way as the 

 Technological Society had done. 



Exhibit. — Mr. D. Tannock exhibited some fine specimens of Primula 

 sinensis, grown by himself in such a way as to exhibit mendelism. Both 

 Mr. Tannock and Dr. Benham, in speaking of the exhibit, referred to 

 the fact that mendelism had been of great service to horticulturists and 

 agriculturists, instancing several changes that had been brought about 

 by the application of Mendel's laws. 



Payers. — 1. " New Species of Lepidoptera." Bv G. W. Howes, 

 F.E.S. 



2. "On the Larvae and Pupae of some New Zealand Butterflies." 

 By G. W. Howes, F.E.S. 



3. "The Food Value of Kumaras." By Dr. J. Malcolm. 



Of the kumara, two-thirds consisted of water ; carbo-hydrates were present in 

 the kumara to the extent of 19 per cent, of the whole. The sweet taste of the kumara 

 was due to the presence of a substance which promoted a plentiful flow of saliva, 

 which converted the starch into sugar. There was only 0'27 per cent, of fat in the 

 kumara. It was a vegetable that did not keep well. Mould grew quickly, owing to 

 the presence of sugar ; the ordinary potato was not so affected, owing to the absence 

 of glucose. 



4. " The Application of Phonetics to English Pronunciation," and 

 " The Question of a New Zealand Dialect." By G. E. Thompson, M.A. 



Nearly all of the English dialects could be heard in New Zealand, but people 

 born in this country and educated in its schools showed a uniformity of pronunci- 

 ation. New Zealand speech was more like the southern English type, and least like 

 the Scottish. As the Dominion was only some fifty years old, the difference in speech 

 was very slight. The chief and noticeable feature was the distinct tendency, when 

 uttering vowel sounds, to lower the tongue, the result being the expression of more 

 open vowel sounds and a mispronunciation (in the vowels) of such words as "sea," 

 "twelve," "mood," "put." These differences in pronunciation showed what was 

 probably the beginning of a distinctly New Zealand dialect. In the discussion that 

 followed Mr. Morrell advocated the inclusion of the study of phonetics in the 

 curriculum of our training colleges. 



