628 Proceedings. 



necessarily be used in the first place for securing the maintenance and ultimate victory 

 of the Empire in its great struggle, it is not to be expected that funds can be provided 

 for a costly library building. 



But is such a building necessary at all ? Let us consider what we mean by a library 

 — a research library. .. Such a library consists of books or papers, printed or written 

 containing information of value. The building is no essential part of the library, and 

 has no value or interest to the investigator apart from the fact that it is the place where 

 he can find the books containing the information he wants. Naturally, the books must 

 be stored somewhere ; but it is a matter of indifference whether they are all in one building 

 or scattered in many buildings, whether all in one centre or widely separated, provided 

 only they are readily accessible to those who require them. 



In biology we are famdiar with what we call vestigial organs — remnants or survivals 

 of organs or structures that once were useful to their possessors, but have long since 

 ceased to have any useful function. By the struggle for existence among organisms 

 these survivals are finally got rid of altogether, or so greatly reduced that their presence 

 causes no inconvenience ; but among the institutions and customs of civdized societies 

 we have many survivals that, unfortunately, are much more difficult to get rid of, and 

 form serious hindrances to progress. The idea that a building is an essential part of a 

 library is a survival from previous centuries, when books were scarce and consequently 

 of great value, and were housed in some building near the centre of the vdlage or the 

 community, and when the rapid means of transport and of intercommunication from 

 one end of a country to the other that we enjoy in the twentieth century were not 

 dreamed of. 



I will endeavour to apply this line of argument to the question of our own Institute 

 library in greater detail presently, but first let me remind you of another commonplace 

 biological principle — every organism is more or less perfectly adapted to its environ- 

 ment, and if the environment changes, and the organism is not sufficiently plastic to 

 change with it, then the organism necessardy falls behind in the struggle, and is doomed 

 to ultimate destruction. 



Now our social, political, and scientific institutions or societies are organisms — 

 they are composed of living members or units, just as an animal or plant is composed of 

 living cells, but in many cases the struggle to which they are subject is not keen enough 

 to bring about perfect adaptation to changed circumstances. Our Institute, for example, 

 has grown up largely on the model of scientific societies in England, in the countries of 

 Europe, or in the States of Australia, where there is one dominant centre of population 

 and of activity in which the great majority of the members reside, or to which they 

 are naturally and readdy attracted. Consequently, these societies can with advantage 

 have a central and permanent home, where the office and library can naturally be placed. 

 But the condition of things is altogether different in New Zealand, where we have 

 no dominating centre, but at least four centres of activity of approximately equal 

 importance, and our Institute will always fall short of complete success so long as it 

 fails to adapt itself to the pecubarities of its New Zealand environment. 



You can easdy follow out the parallel for yourselves, but what I want to urge upon 

 you is that in our policy for the future control of the Institute we should endeavour to 

 get rid of the idea that it must necessardy be permanently associated with any single 

 geographical locality, and must arrange the machinery for its management so that 

 it can adapt itself to varying conditions as they arise, our great object being to see 

 that the influence of the Institute is exerted and its advantages enjoyed wherever they 

 wdl be most effective in promoting the objects for which it was established. 



All the meetings of this Board, with two exceptions, have been held in Wellington, 

 and all the members of the Board nominated by the Government since the reconstituticn 

 of the Board in 1903 have been residents in Wellington. There is no justification fcr 

 either of these courses unless they have been desirable in the best interests of the Institute. 

 Our Institute is composed of the members of the district Institutes incorporated with it, 

 and these are scattered over the whole of New Zealand ; and where the members are, 

 there should the Institute be. To keep in touch with our members, to help them in 

 their work, and to learn what they can teach us, we should endeavour to meet in rotation 

 in the different centres where the district Institutes have their headquarters. These 

 Institutes differ in character, constitution, and methods of work; and it is not desirable 

 that they should be otherwise, or that we should endeavour to impose any uniformity 

 upon them — each wdl do its work best by adapting itself to the particular needs of its 

 special environment. But it is essential that this Board, which has the general control 

 of them all, should be thoroughly acquainted with the special characters of the Institutes, 

 and that the members of one Institute should have some opportunity of meeting those 

 of other Institutes, and of receiving the stimulation and encouragement that arises 

 therefrom. There mav be practical difficulties in the way, but I am endeavouring to 



