584 Proceedings. 



the Society en its excellent record of work for the year. Once again he 

 felt it right to remark that in all cases the papers which had come before 

 the Society had been the result of careful work by the authors themselves, 

 and were not merely popular descriptions of other people's work, as was 

 the case with the papers of sc many societi?s. He thought it a sign of 

 great promise that in Wellington, notwithstanding the extreme " business " 

 character of the people, we were able to find a large number of observers 

 capable of contributing something from their own observations. It was 

 work of this kind to which we must ultimately look for the advancement 

 of any branch of science. 



Paper.—" Two New Ferns," by H. C. Field. (Transac- 

 tions, p. 495.) 



Exhibit. — Professor H. B. Kirk exhibited under the micro- 

 scope a specimen of a rare species of Volvox. 



First Meeting : 3rd May, 1905. 



Mr. Martin Chapman, President, in the chair. 



Papers. — 1. " The Estimation and Detection of the- Al- 

 kaloids by Means of their Double Sulphocyanides," by P. W. 

 Robertson, M.A., Rhodes Scholar. (Transactions, p. 51.) 



Professor Easterfield congratulated Mr. Robertson on his investigations, 

 and said that the author's test for the detection of the presence of certain 

 alkaloids was likely to prove a very useful one. 



2. " Flints from Miramar " (with exhibits), by Henry M. 

 Christie. 



3. " Struggle between a Brown Spider and a Common 

 Worm," by Henry M. Christie. 



4. " Capture of an Octopus at Lyall Bay," by Henry M. 

 Christie. 



Professor H. B. Kirk gave an account of various biological 

 laboratories visited by him during a recent trip to Europe. 



Second Meeting : 1th June, 1905. 



Mr. Martin Chapman, President, in the chair. 



Papers. — 1. " Natural Photography," by Coleman Phillips. 

 2. " On New Zealand Earthquakes," by G. Hogben, M.A. 

 (Transactions, p. 502.) 



Mr. A. McKay agreed generally with Mr. Hogben, but desired to point 

 out that while, as Mr. Hogben had argued, the lines of seismic activity in 

 New Zealand were, broadly speaking, parallel to the great fault-lines 

 of the country, yet very many of these lines of faulting (at Okarito, for 

 example) converged upoa, and even intersected, one another. Mr. Mc- 

 Kay said that the fine of activity south of Banks Peninsula^ to which Mr. 

 Hogben had referred was unknown tc himself. 



Dr. Newman mentioned that settlers on the east coast of the North 

 Island were of opinion that the country along the coast-line in their dis- 

 trict was gradually tilting up. He instanced the experience of a settler, 



