500.(931) 192 



VI. 



Science in New Zealand. 



A RECENT number of The Press of Christchurch, New Zealand, 

 contains an interesting article by Professor Arthur Dendy, on 

 the present position of science in New Zealand. It is very largely a 

 lamentation over the apathy displayed by the members of a new 

 community. " Our best and most promising University Students," 

 says the Professor, " are obliged to leave us in order to find a market 

 for their intellectual wares, and those few scientific men who have 

 taken up their abode in this colony must still look mainly to Europe 

 and America for an audience." The comparative isolation of the few 

 centres of intellectual activity in the islands is also a great hindrance, 

 since there can be no central library or museum readily accessible to 

 all workers, and funds are not forthcoming to establish such at more 

 than one point. The New Zealand Institute, as the representative 

 scientific body of the colony, is thus seriously handicapped in its career 

 of usefulness compared with the similar institutions in the other 

 Australasian colonies. Instead of being one flourishing and influential 

 society, with first-class accommodation for the meetings and for the 

 library in the capital city, the Institute consists of a " Board of 

 Governors," most of whom are nominated by the Government, and a 

 " Manager," with a number of " incorporated," but practically 

 independent, local Societies in Wellington, Auckland, Canterbury, 

 Otago, Westland, Hawke's Bay, Southland, and Nelson. 



It is, indeed, " to a certain extent, a Government institution, 

 and as such receives an annual subsidy from Parliament of some ^500, 

 which just about pays the expenses of publication of the annual 

 volume. The incorporated Societies secure the advantage of having 

 their proceedings, including such papers as are deemed worthy by the 

 authorities, published and distributed free of cost to themselves, so 

 that the whole of the annual income of each is available for local 

 purposes. That this is a great advantage cannot be doubted ; but, at 

 the same time, it is an arrangement which has, at any rate from the 

 point of view of the Incorporated Societies, serious drawbacks, 

 especially with regard to what may be called the Library Question. 

 Out in these colonies, remote from all the great centres of intellectual 

 activity, the scientific investigator is peculiarly dependent upon the 

 literature of his subject for keeping himself abreast of the times, and 

 it is therefore of the greatest importance that the Society to which he 

 belongs should maintain its library in as efficient a state as possible, 

 for in the great majority of cases he is not himself in a position to 



