WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



First Meeting : %th May, 1908. 



Professor H. B. Kirk, President, in the chair. 



New Members. — Mr. Thomas H. Gill, M.A., Mr. John Thompson, and 

 Mr. John U. Turnbull. 



Mr. Martin Chapman, K.C., said that, as this was the first meeting of 

 the Society which had been held since the death of Sir James Hector (which 

 occurred on the 6th November, 1907), he had been desired by the Council to 

 propose the following resolution : " That this Society puts on record its 

 high appreciation of the valuable scientific work of the late Sir James Hector, 

 and expresses its regret at his decease. That a copy of this resolution be 

 sent to Lady Hector." 



In moving the motion, Mr. Chapman dwelt on the long identification of Sir James 

 with the Society, and the high value and great volume of the work which he had done 

 for the Society. 



Professor Easterfield seconded the motion. He spoke of Sir James Hector's wide 

 range, of his invaluable contributions to science, of his great energy — particularly in his 

 earlier years — and of the kindly help which he was at all times ready to render to other 

 scientific workers. 



The motion was carried in silence, all the members present standing. 



On the motion of Dr. A. K. Newman, seconded by Mr. Martin Chapman, 

 K.C., Mr. G. V. Hudson and Mr. A. Hamilton were appointed a committee 

 to co-operate, on behalf of the Society, with the public Hector Memorial 

 Committee and with the Hector Memorial Committee of the New Zealand 

 Institute, which were raising funds for the purpose of establishing a memorial 

 to the late Sir James Hector. 



It was resolved that the Society's committee should be asked to stipulate that the 

 benefits of the memorial fund (which would probably be expended on a science research 

 prize) should be open to all New Zealand candidates, whether imiversity students or not. 



Professor Easterfield, as a member of the Hector Memorial Committee of the New 

 Zealand Institute, said that he would be glad to receive subscriptions to the fund. 



Papers.— 1. " An Elementary Note on Mendelism and the Mendelian 

 Theory of Inheritance," by G. V. Hudson, F.E.S. 



In this paper Mr. Hudson gave a popular account of the researches of Mendel. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, Dr. L. Cockayne (who 

 spoke at the invitation of the Chairman) said that the important thing about Mendel's 

 work was that Mendel concerned himself not at all with " species," but concentrated his 

 attention on " characters," which were much more manageable things to deal with. 

 Dr. Cockayne announced that the subject would presently be studied ]iractically in 

 New Zealand by himself, as the Department of Agriculture had decided to place 

 him in charge of some experiments in plant-breeding. He purposed devoting special 

 attention to Phormmm tenax, our indigenous flax-plant. 



2. " Notes and Descriptions of New Zealand Lefidoftera'' by E. Meyrick, 

 B.A., F.K.S. ; communicated by G. V. Hudson, F.E.S. 



3. " Some New Forms of Boiling-point Apparatus," by Professor T. H.. 



Easterfield. 



Professor Easterfield exhibited several forms of boiling-point apparatus designed 

 and constructed by himself, and gave jnactical demonstrations of their use. 



