718 Proceedings. 



Sir James Hector considered this a geographical improbability. Ae 

 to the alleged kumi, he said iliat in 1875 Mr. Carlton, then Chairman 

 of Committees in the House of Representatives, and a great scholar, 

 rui-hed into his (Sir James's) room with the remark, " At last we 

 have really got it." It transpired that Mr. Carlton referred to a 

 strange quadruped " with six legs " which had been found in a flooded 

 river somewhere about Hokianga, and the natives, horrified at seeing 

 such an ex'raordiiifiry creature, hacked it all to pieces. If the kumi 

 existed at fill it might, he thought, be found allied to the great sala- 

 mander of Japan, now almost extinct. The reported des-cription indi- 

 cated this ; and it was certainly a reptile of this kind that was carved on 

 a gable-post at Rotorun, and which was figured in Hochstetter's "New 

 Zealand," p. 424 (Eng. trans.). 



Mr. Harding read extracts of letters from the Rev. !k[r. Colenso on 

 the subject. 



Fifth Meeting : 18th October, 1898. 

 Mr. E. Tregear, President, in the chair. 



Major-General Schaw was nominated to vote in the elec- 

 tion of Governors of the New Zealand Institute for the 

 ensuing year. 



The President drew attention to the death (i8th October, 

 1898) of Mr. John Buchanan, F.L.S., a very old member of 

 the Society. 



Sir James Hector said Mr. Buchanan was well known to the mem- 

 bars as one who had done great service to the New Zealand Insti- 

 tute by the beautiful way in which he had illustrated Volumes I. to 

 XIX. of their Transactioris. When he (Sir James) came out to New 

 Zealand in 1861 Sir Joseph Hcoker asked him to look out for a man 

 called John Buchanan, who sent Home to the herbarium at Kew the 

 best collections of plants that were received from Australasia. On 

 arrival in New Zealand he (Sir James) accordingly advertised for Mr. 

 Buchanan, who immediately responded, and to whom he was able to 

 give an appointment as draughtsman and botanist in 1862. About six 

 years ago Mr. Buchanan retired from the public service. Mr. Buchanan 

 contributed many valuable papers— perhaps the most valuable papers 

 that had ever been contributed — to the botany of New Zealand, and he 

 also worked in the interests of science in many other ways. He was a 

 great explorer, or, rather, wanderer, and he endured much hardship in 

 collecting specimens of geological interest, minerals, birds even, and 

 certainly, above all other things, plants. Mr. Buchanan's collection of 

 plants made in New Zealand were forwarded from time to time to Sir 

 Joseph Hookor at Kew, and the whole of the plants he collected up to 

 1S63 were embodied in the "Flora of New Zealand," published in 1865. 

 Of course, since then he had made other large collections. These also 

 were seut'to Kew ; but duplicates remained here, and were placed at the 

 disposal of the late Mr. Kirk, who had made use of them in his work, 

 now partly published. Mr. Buchanan had left a large collection of 

 specimens, books, drawings, and manuscript notes, all of which he (Sir 

 James) saw on the last occasion on which he was m Dunedin in the 

 crypts and cellars underneath the museum in that city. Sir James 

 added that he hoped a little better care would be taken of the collec- 

 tion until they reached a more enlightened age. There might be many 



