528 Proceedings. 



PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY. 



At the annual meeting (1st December, 1920) the annual report and 

 balance-sheet were adopted. 



Abstract. 



Council. — Eleven meetings of the Council have been held during the year. The 

 personnel remains the same as at last election. 



Membership. — -During the year twenty -one new members were elected and seventeen 

 names were removed from the roll, which now stands at 234, as against 230. at the 

 beginning of the session. 



Obituary. — -It is with regret that the Council records the death of six of our members 

 during the year — -namely, J. B. Struthers, P. Schneider, A. Kaye, G. E. Blanch, E. 

 Herring, and Miss Hall ; and the sympathy of the Institute is extended to the relatives. 

 The Council further desires to record its sense of the loss sustained by the New Zealand 

 Institute in the death of Mr. George Hogben, the well-known Dominion seismologist. 

 Mr. Hogben was President of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury in 1887. 



Meetings of the Institute.- — -During the year eight ordinary and two additional 

 ordinary meetings were held at Canterbury College, and in addition meetings were held 

 at Kaiapoi and Methven. Towards the end of January Dr. R. J. Tillyard, Macleay 

 Research Fellow of Sydney (since appointed entomologist to the Cawthron Institute), 

 gave an illustrated lecture on " Dragon-flies." In April a social evening was held, at 

 which, through the kind permission of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College, 

 the Physics, Chemistry, and Biological Laboratories were thrown open to members 

 and their friends. To the professors in charge, who had kindly arranged demonstrations 

 and exhibits, the best thanks of the Institute are due. 



At the May meeting Mr. L. P. Symes delivered his presidential address on the 

 subject, " Fats, Edible and Otherwise." Other lectures delivered were : Dr. T. A. 

 Jaggar, of the Volcano Observatory at Hawaii, " The Study of Active Volcanoes " ; 

 Dr. C. C. Farr, " Relativitv and the Einstein Hypothesis " ; Professor E. Marsden, 

 " Gun-location on the Western Front " ; Dr. C. Chilton, " The First Pan-Pacific 

 Science Conference." 



Fifteen technical papers were also read during the session, comprising six botanical, 

 four zoological, three geological, and two chemical. 



The attendances throughout the year have been most gratifying. 



Following the practice instituted last year, the Council arranged a number of 

 meetings at places out of Christchurch, and this year they were held at Methven and 

 Kaiapoi, where the following addresses were given : At Methven — G. Archey, " Mos- 

 quitoes a.nd Man " ; L. J. Wild, " Science in the Development of Agriculture." At 

 Kaiapoi— L. P. Symes, "Edible Fats"; Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf, "The Waimakariri 

 Artesian System." The attendances at these lectures was most encouraging, and the 

 appreciative interest taken in the matters dealt with fully warrants the continuance 

 and development of the policy of holding meetings outside Christchurch. 



Government Research Grants.- — -On the recommendation of this Institute a grant of 

 £200 was made to Dr. W. P. Evans for " Research on the New Zealand Brown Coals," 

 and one of £50 to Mr. George Gray for research on the " Composition of Canterbury 

 Waters." Other research grants, covering operations that are still proceeding, which 

 the Institute has been instrumental in obtaining, are : L. J. Wild, " Soil Survey " ; 

 R. Speight, " Geological Survey of the Malvern Hills " ; Dr. C. C. Farr, " Porosity 

 of Porcelain"; G. Brittan, "Fruit-tree Diseases"; W. Morrison, "Afforestation on 

 the Spenser Ranges " ; Dr. C. Chilton, " Investigations on the New Zealand Flax 

 (Phormium)." 



Library. — -The extended accommodation indicated in last year's report is not yet 

 available, but it is hoped that as soon as building conditions become more favourable 

 the contemplated extensions to the Public Library will be completed. The need for 

 more space has become so acute that arrangements have been made to remove some of 

 the older and less-used books from the shelves and store them in cases, in order to make 

 room for the later journals and periodicals as they are bound. Beyond these journals, 

 very few books have this year been added, owing partly to the lack of room and partly 

 to the high cost. Altogether, thirty-one volumes have been bound, and twenty-nine 



