598 Proceedings. 



England of to-day ^^ itli that of fifty years ago, saying tbat the best time was 

 always the present, if we only strove to make good use of it. After giving 

 a brief sketch of the history of Darwinism, and showing some pictures of 

 INFarsh's toothed birds from Kansas, he passed on to speak of the great 

 improvements that had been effected in photography, and exhibited some 

 exceedingly beautiful collotypes. After briefly noticing the modern ap- 

 plications of electricity — the telegraph, the telephone, electric light, and 

 phonograph, which he intimated he intended to deal with more fully 

 during the session — he said a few words about spectrum analysis. He- 

 then spoke of the revelations of the microscope in the matter of microbes 

 and of their pathogenic tendencies, the remainder of his address being 

 devoted to giving an account of the rise and growth of " organic che- 

 mistry," illustrating his remarks by a reference to some of the products 

 obtained from coal. He concluded by expressing his regret that tlic more 

 rational decimal system of weights and measures had not yet been made 

 the legal standard of the colonj-. 



Sir James Hector, in proposing a vote of thanks to the President, 

 complimented him on the very able address he had just delivered, giving 

 as it did a clear and most interesting sketch of the progress of science 

 during the past fifty years. He congratulated the Society on the choice 

 of its President, and said that, judging from the address, he was quite able 

 to control the discussion in any branch of science that might be brought 

 forward at the meetings. 



Mr. Travers seconded the vote of thanks, which was carried. Ho 

 said it was impossible on the spur of the moment to touch on all of the 

 many points referred to by Mr. Hulke. The address he considered was 

 most interesting, especially that part referring to the progress of photo- 

 graphy. Mr. Travers gave examples of many new processes in this art, 

 and, regarding technical education, alluded to the great need for the 

 introduction of such instruction into our schools, saying that he believed 

 the strong endeavour which was now being made to introduce it 

 into the scholastic establishments of England was likely to meet with 

 success. If, however, to-morrow we wished to introduce technical educa- 

 tion into the schools of this country, he did not think there were a 

 sufficient number of men in the colony capable of giving instruction. 

 What we ought to have established were schools in which persons might 

 be fitted for imparting such instruction to the young. Until that was 

 done we could make no advance. At present we had no school of any 

 kind in which technical education was taught, and yet he believed the 

 Government were annually wasting enormous sums of monej- which might 

 be devoted to this purpose. 



Mr. Maskell said he would like to say a few words before the question 

 was put. He very cordially indorsed all that had been said by the two 

 former speakers in thanking the President for his excellent address. He 

 would not himself have gone as far as the President did in expressing 

 admiration for the evolution theory ; but that was merely a matter of 

 private opinion. He rose, however, principally to emphasize somewhat a 

 point in the address, where the President drew attention to the fact that 

 the first steps in every improvement were made by men working in science 

 for purely scientific ends. It was true that a man of science gives the 

 first notion of an improvement to the world ; then comes the inventor 

 who applies that notion, and so great practical benefits to humanity have 

 come about. But in this country, unfortunately, people take the least 

 intelligent view possible of science ; and an instance of this was afforded 

 only a few days ago in a leading article in a Wellington journal, which 

 held up scientific men to ridicule, seemingly only on the ground that they 

 followed science. In fact, a man in New Zealand who attempted any 

 scientific work without showing some immediate money returns for it is 

 generally considered to be very much a fool. Now, unfortunately, this 

 opinion is prevalent in all quarters, from the uneducated settler up to the 



