Wellington Philosophical Society. 723 



for the last thirty-five years, and also a constant correspondent. Ah 

 they all knew, Mr. Colenso had been a constant contributor to the work 

 of the New Zealand Institute. He took a lively interest in its progress, 

 and \n its success in every direction. He contributed to its meetings 

 articles of the greatest intertst and value upon almost every branch of 

 natural science. He did valuable work as an explorer in the early days 

 of settlement in New Zealand, and then and subsequently he did good 

 work as a recorder m zoological science. But above all things he did 

 good work in extending their knowledge of the botany of New Zealand. 

 No one who turned t)ver the pages of Hooker's " Flora of New Zealand " 

 could fail to see what a master mind his was, and what a master hand 

 he had in collecting accurate knowledge in natural science. But these 

 were by-paths in comparison with his great work in philology. When 

 he came to New Zealand he was employed in printing the New Testa- 

 ment in the Maori language, and bound the work also with bis own 

 liands. A copy of this Testament, which he presented to Mr. R. C. 

 Harding, one of their fellow-members, was on the table before them 

 that night. The inscription in it stated that it was composed, printed, 

 and bound by Mr. Colenso with his own hand.s, in the year 1837. How- 

 ever, that was not the end of his work. In addition to all his scientific 

 labour.^, he carried on a very large and charitable work among the Maoris. 

 But, above all, his mind was tor many years almost solely devoted to 

 the collection of the great treasures of knowledge that were buried 

 in the languages of Polynesia, and particularly to the tracing out of 

 the words that were involved in the Maori language. He was employed 

 by the Government for many years to collect and arrange and prepare a 

 lexicon of the Maori language and the cognate lar)guages of Polynesia. 

 He (Sir James) was, about 1870, asked to inspect the manuscript of 

 this great work, and he was really surprised at its extent. It almost 

 filled the walls of a room. And the manuscript, too, had been done in 

 the most systematic manner. But, unfortunately, one or two of the 

 important letters of the alphabet — they wore very important ; he thought 

 thev were " Ng " and some others — were at the time mislaid. The loss 

 so disheartened Mr. Colenso that he seemed to have left off work for some 

 time. There had been, he regretted to say, a few hard things said about 

 Mr. Colenso for his apparent dilatoriness in getting on with the lexicon. 

 But no one who knew of the exertion Mr. Colenso gave to the 

 work could blame him in the least. There were many reasons at 

 work, most of which were set forth in the small fragment of the 

 lexicon that was published three years ago — half of the first letter. 

 That fragment was enough to show what a great work the lexicon 

 would have been if published under his eye. I\Ir. Colenso had pre- 

 sented this great work, under certain very moderate conditions, so 

 he was informed, to the Government, for them to deal with it as they 

 pleased. He presumed that what Mr. Colenso had stipulated was that 

 the work should not be lost, but should be published for the public 

 benefit. In making other donations Mr. Colenso had been most lavish. 

 He had presented to the Theological Library of Napier the whole of his 

 collection of theolcgical works and his collection of scientific works. His 

 most valuable collection of zoological, botanical, and mineral specimens 

 he had presented to the Napier Museum. He had also made certain 

 donations to the Colonial Museum in Wellington, and in aid of that 

 institution. In every way he had displayed a most liberal mmd, and left 

 behind him an mfluence for good. He was the founder, with the late 

 Sir George Grey, of the New Zealand Society, upon wliich the Welling- 

 ton Philosophical Society was engrafted ; and he was a yearly member of 

 the latter Society. 



Mr. R. C. Harding said it was thirty-eight years that month since he 

 first met the late Mr. Colenso. During the whole of that time he knew 



