WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



1909. 



First Meeting : 5th May, 1909. 



Mr. A. Hamilton, President, in the chair. 



Xeiv Members.— Mi: James B. Gatenby, Mr. H. S. Hart, Mr. E. P. Turner, 

 Mr. Leslie Adkin, and Miss Phoebe Mvers, B.A. 



Honorary Member of New Zealand Institute. — The Chairman announced 

 that, on the nomination of the Society, Sir George Howard Darwin, F.R.S., 

 had been elected by the Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute 

 an honorary member of the Institute. 



On the motion of Mr. C. E. Adams, a vote of thanks was passed to the 

 Smveyor-General for his action in setting up permanent bench-marks at 

 those places in New Zealand at which tide-gauges were in use. It was 

 resolved that a copy of the resolution should be forwarded to the Surveyor- 

 General. 



Address. — The President delivered the following address, entitled " Some 

 Suggestions concerning Scientific Research in New Zealand." 



After thanking you for the honour of election as your President for the coming 

 session, I propose to say a few words on certain asijects of scientific work in this 

 country that may suggest tO some of you fresh lines of action, and perhaps encourage those 

 who have already commenced. It must be admitted at once that, although our oppor- 

 tunities in this wonderful country in the southern seas are many, and suitable subjects 

 for investigation are with us on every side, there is one serious deficiency which is soon 

 felt when any systematic work in natural science is attempted : this is the difficulty 

 of access to the sea of literature which is ever increasing and swelling to such vast 

 proportions. Systematic work demands a full acquaintance with the literature of the 

 subject, and that is a knowledge of a special kind. Fortunately, recent years have 

 seen the issue of several valuable publications devoted to the full bibliographical 

 analysis of the scientific work put forward year by year, and a student is therefore now 

 able, if properly informed, to find out without much labour what has been ^^Titten on 

 the subject on which he is working, by consulting these records. 



In countries, dominions, and colonies separated by great distances from the great 

 libraries of Europe and America the absence of works of reference in all branches of 

 science is one of the disadvantages which workers have to overcome as best they may. 

 In this Dominion the governing bodies of the local Institutes affiliated to the New 

 Zealand Institute have s^ient time and money in gathering together the foundations 

 of a library. The New Zealand Institute itself has been fortunate enough, under the 

 guiding hand of the late Sir James Hector, to obtain a very large number of valuable 

 publications in all branches of science, mainly by arranging for an exchange of pub- 

 lications with other institutes for those issued by the New Zealand Institute, and the 

 publications of the Geological Survey and Museum. The Institute at present 

 exchanges with 178 other publishing societies and institutions ; the Museum exchanges 

 with eighty-nine ; and the newly reconstituted Geological Survey has also a long list 

 of exchanges arranged for, which, however, are not now placed in the Institute library. 

 The four larger incorporated* societies — at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and 

 Dunedin — have libraries of their own, the books in which have been either purchased 

 or presented by various donors. Hawke's Bay has also a nucleus of a scientific library. 

 At the last meeting of the New Zealand Institute, held in January last, I brought forward 

 a proposition that an effort should be made to make these various libraries available 

 to any scientific student in New Zealand, and I have since submitted to the societies 

 the following circular, covered by a letter to the President of each society requesting a 

 statement of their views on the suggestions and a reply to the questions : — 



* By " The New Zealand Institute Act, 1903," the local societies are " incorporated," not " affiliated " 

 as previously. 



