Twelfth Annual Meeting. 629 



put before you the ideal that we should aim at ; and if we fully realize that, and strive 

 to reach it, some way of overcoming the difficulties will readily be found. If we are 

 to become acquainted with the Institute as a whole, we must endeavour to meet 

 periodically at least in the four chief cities — Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and 

 Dunedin. A suggestion was made some years ago that we might meet at the same 

 place and about the same time as the Senate of the New Zealand University. On the 

 Senate are usually some who are also members of this Board ; at present there are three, 

 and there might be more if it were possible to attend the meetings of both bodies without 

 inconvenience. These members, being present at the Senate meeting, could attend the 

 Institute meeting without additional travelling or expense, and the opportunities that 

 would be afforded for the meeting of the learned members of two bodies having so many 

 objects in common would exert a widening and invigorating influence on both. 



But we must do much more than this if we are to reach our individual members 

 effectively. In the New Zealand Institute Act it is provided that " The Beard of 

 Governors may from, time to time, as it sees fit, make arrangements for the holding of 

 general meetings of members of the Institute, at times and places to be arranged, for 

 the reading of scientific papers, the delivery of lectures, and for the general promotion 

 of science in New Zealand by any means that may appear desirable." That clause was, 

 I believe, inserted on the suggestion of the late Captain Hutton, who hoped that the 

 Institute would one day be able to hold meetings something like those of the British 

 and Australasian Associations for the Advancement of Science. We have made no 

 effort to hold such general meetings, and I am afraid we are in danger of looking upon 

 the annual meeting of the Board of Governors as being held almost entirely for the 

 purpose of making arrangements for the publication of the Transactions, the presentation 

 of an annual report and balance-sheet, the payment of accounts, and of other routine 

 business ; and the result is that the existence of the New Zealand Institute is unknown 

 to the great majority of the people of New Zealand. Extension of cur work would 

 be beneficial to the community generally and to ourselves, for we are doing valuable 

 and useful work, and if we can only make this evident to the electors we shall have 

 no difficulty in procuring funds for further extension of the work. If the Board of 

 Governors were to hold its annual meetings at various centres in rotation, we could 

 easily arrange for general meetings of the members at the same time, to which the public 

 could be freely invited. The details of the necessary arrangements could be left to the 

 district Institute at the place where the meetings were held, and the stimulus of the 

 work of preparation and of the healthy competition between the different Institutes in 

 the effort to hold the most successful meetings possible would, I feel sure, speedily cause 

 greatly increased growth of the whole Institute. At present there are many persons 

 in the general community genuinely interested in scientific matters who are ignorant 

 of the work of the Institute, and who receive no assistance from it. 



We can now return to the consideration of our library. The present position is 

 that, although we have a library of considerable size and value, it is stored in such a way 

 that it is practically inaccessible and of no use to the members. We have often been 

 told that research in New Zealand is greatly hindered by the want of properly equipped 

 libraries. There is, of course, considerable truth in this statement; but, on the other 

 hand, it is equally true that we do not make anything like the use we should of the 

 books that are in New Zealand, and this is especially true in the case of the Institute 

 library. 



Our library consists mainly of the scientific journals and periodicals that have been 



received during the last forty-five years in exchange for our Transactions. If these 



were available for use, we would have a library of fair completeness and of extreme 



• value, especially to the workers in zoology, botany, or geology, the sciences in which 



research is most urgently needed and is most easily carried out. 



Now, as you know, these books are not available. Some of them are in the library - 

 room of the Museum ; others are stored away somewhere else in the Museum, either on 

 shelves or in cases ; but it is impossible to' tell what books are in the library, or in many 

 instances to find any particular volume that is required. What have we done to try 

 to improve matters ? For the last twelve years we have appointed Library Com- 

 mittees and Librarians, and we have received reports, but we have not succeeded in 

 making any real improvement, and the condition of affairs appears to be growing worse 

 instead of better. What can be done ? The first thing that is necessary is to overhaul 

 the library, and find out what books we have. One member of this Board now resident 

 in Wellington, Dr. Cockayne, has offered to devote part of his valuable time to assisting 

 in this work. At first sight, and judging from our want of success in the past, it would 

 appear to be a hopeless task, but I have little doubt that if he were assisted by two or 

 three others as enthusiastic as himself, and were allowed the use of a few clerks or typists, 

 tbe great part of what is necessary could be accomplished in a fortnight, and at a cost 

 small in itself and trivial in comparison with the value of the work done. 



