588 Proceedings. 



white children were addicted to chewing indiarubber. The Natives called 

 it mimiha, meaning the hair seal ; or palcake, signifying whale ; also 

 wdka-atua, " canoe of demons." They said that its common form re- 

 sembled that of a canoe. Mr. Chapman said that to him the substance 

 appeared to be crude petroleum, completely sun-dried — i.e., the volatile 

 parts had evaporated, leaving only the heavy or pitch-like residue. 



Sixth Meeting : Uh October, 1905. 

 Mr. Martin Chapman, President, in the chair. 



New Members. — Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Tripe, and Messrs. 

 G. A. Hurley, J. M. A. Ilott, and C. B. Morison. 



The Chairman announced that an extra meeting of the 

 Society would be held on the 1st November, and that a popular 

 lantern lecture on " New Zealand Birds " would probably be 

 given at the beginning of December by Mr. Edgar F. Stead, of 

 Christchurch. 



Papers. — 1. " Maori Place-names, with Special Reference 

 to the Great Lakes and Mountains of the South Island," by 

 James Cowan. {Transactions, p. 113.) 



Mr. Justice Chapman, referring to the list of place-names mentioned 

 by Mr. Cowan as having been compiled bj' himself (Mr. Justice Chapman), 

 said that in listening to the paper he had been struck by the fact that the 

 results obtained by Mr. Cowan from personal investigations amongst 

 the Natives showed almost absolute agreement with those obtained by 

 himself, although he had derived his information from people living a 

 hundred and fifty miles away from the Maoris consulted by Mr. Cowan. 

 It was rather surprising that two independent inquirers should come to 

 such agreement in work of the sort. It was very difficult to get information 

 about these place-names from authentic Maori sources, although easy 

 enough to obtain so-called information from Natives possessing no real 

 claims to knowledge. He agreed with Mr. Cowan in thinking that the 

 majority of Native place-names were personal names. He complimented 

 Mr. Cowan upon the accuracy of his work. 



2. " Ruas on Seatoun Heights," by H. N. McLeod. 



3. " On Flabellum ruqulosum" by Henry Suter, Auckland ; 

 communicated by A. Hamilton. (Transactions, p. 334.) 



4. " Notes on New Zealand Mollusca. with Descriptions of 

 New Species and Sub-species," by Henry Suter, Auckland ; 

 communicated by A. Hamilton. (Transactions, p. 316.) 



Annual Meeting : Uh October, 1905. 



Mr. Martin Chapman, President, in the chair. 



The Council's annual report and annual statement of receipts 



and expenditure were read and adopted. 



The report mentioned (inter alia) that six meetings had been held 

 during the session of 1905, and that twenty-one papers in all had been 

 read. 



