626 Proceedings. 



PEESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



The following is the presidential address delivered at the annual meeting 

 of the Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute, at Wellington, 

 on the 29th January 1915, by Charles Chilton, M.A., D.Sc, LL.D., F.L.S., 

 Professor of Biology, Canterbury College : — 



Gentlemen of the Board or Governors of the New Zealand Institute, — 

 Before we commence the business of our meeting it is our sad duty to record the loss 

 of one of our number — Mr. James Stewart, C.E., of Auckland. Mr. Stewart had been 

 a member of this Board from its reconstitution in 1903, and was with us at our last 

 annual meeting, and, though well advanced in years, he appeared then in his usual health, 

 and followed the business with his customary care and keeness. Very shortly after 

 our meeting, however, he passed suddenly away. In the name of the Institute I sent 

 an appropriate message to his relatives, and a brief obituary notice was inserted in the 

 last volume of the Transactions. Our aged members must in the course of nature be 

 taken from us one by one, and, while we mourn their loss and rejoice in the results of 

 their labours, we should be reminded thereby of the greater responsibility that rests 

 on those of us that are left, and be stimulated to renewed effort while we still have the 

 opportunity. 



Early last year we were able to join our scientific brethren of Australia in rejoicing 

 at the safe return from the Antarctic Continent of Dr. Mawson — now Sir Douglas 

 Mawson — and his companions, and later on we had the pleasure of hearing from his 

 own lips an account of the splendid results achieved notwithstanding the extraordinary 

 difficulties and dangers that were met with, and of getting a vivid and accurate idea of 

 life in the Antarctic from the exceptionally beautiful and varied series of pictures that 

 he was able to display. Judging from what I have seen of some of his collections, I feel 

 confident that the biological results of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition will equal, 

 if they do not surpass, those of any other Antarctic expedition in their interest and 

 completeness. I trust that Sir Douglas Mawson's endeavour to obtain sufficient funds 

 for the adequate publication of the results of his researches will soon be rewarded with 

 success. 



But from Australia there comes also cause for sorrowful condolence. Some two 

 or three months ago the Commonwealth Federal Investigation Steamer " Endeavour," 

 which has done so much good work in bathymetrical and biological observations round the 

 coasts of Australia, was sent on a mission to Macquarie Island, and has not since been 

 heard of, and there seems little doubt that she has been lost with her crew and scientific 

 staff — another sacrifice to the claims of science and the destructive seas of sub- 

 antarctic regions. 



Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition has gone to the far South in its adventurous 

 effort to cross the Antarctic Continent from the shores of the Weddell Sea to those of 

 the Ross Sea, and later on we shall be anxiously looking for news of the welfare of the 

 leader and of those who are with him. 



It gives me great pleasure to announce that the long-expected illustrations to 

 Mr. Cheeseman's "Manual of the New Zealand Flora" have been recently published 

 in two handsome and valuable quarto volumes. The work has been in preparation 

 for several years ; it has cost much both in human exertion and in money, and the 

 result is highly creditable both to the author and to the Dominion. We can heartily 

 congratulate Sir. Cheeseman on the publication of another noteworthy contribution 

 to the botany of New Zealand. 



I regret to say that the similar series of plates to illustrate Mr. Suter's " Manual 

 of the New Zealand -MoWwsca," to which I referred last year, has not yet been issued, 

 though the work connected with their preparation has been completed, and it is hoped 

 that they will very soon be printed. 



Last year we took pleasure in conveying to a distinguished foreign botanist — Pro- 

 fessor Engler, of Berlin — on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, our congratulations 

 on his long years of service to botanical science, and an appropriate reply from him 

 will be found among the correspondence to be presented to you later on. 



To-day we are engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the German nation ; inter- 

 national courtesies and schemes of co-operation for scientific work are suspended, and 

 the resources and inventions of science are being used to carry death and destruction 

 to thousands and tens of thousands of the finest individuals of the manhood of the 

 nations, while as incidents in the struggle — incidents that are scarcely apologised for as 

 regrettable — ancient and famous universities and libraries are destroyed, beautiful 

 and historic cathedrals are laid in ruins, and town-halls and other public buildings, 

 the pride and glory of the citizens, are battered to pieces. It is a ghastly and pitiful 



