AUCKLAND INSTITUTE. 



First Meeting : Snd June, 1890. 



James Stewart, C.E., President, in the chair. 



New Mevihers.—B,: D. Duxfield, M.A., L. Ehrenfried. 

 G. Fowlds, J. Goodall, C.E. 



The President delivered the anniversary address. 



Abstbaot. 

 After referring to the satisfactory progress of the society, the President 

 referred to the very crowded state of the museum, and the necessity for 

 more exhibiting-space to enable a proper classification of the collections 

 on a scientific and educational plan. He then reviewed the financial 

 position of the society, which he considered on the whole satisfactory, as 

 it possessed very considerable endowments, and funded property that 

 brought in an income that was secure; but still the society was mainl}' 

 dependent on members' subscriptions for the maintenance of the museum. 

 It must be borne in mind also, he said, that a museum was not a mere 

 collection of curious things gathered together at little or no cost, or kept 

 up by gifts or bequests of people of an antiquarian turn of mind. On the 

 contrary, few educational' institutions were more expensive in proper 

 equipment and maintenance. The recently-acquired collection of stuffed 

 mammals from Borneo, now exhibited, would show the value which 

 must attach to a complete and systematic collection in natural history. 

 These animals were taken by men subject to great risk and expense, and 

 must be set up by artists having a perfect knowledge of the anatom}- and 

 iiatural appearance of the animals, as well as the reqiiisite technical 

 skill. But if a museum of natural-history science was costly, a techno- 

 logical one was far more so, and to attempt any real excellence in that 

 direction was, ho feared, beyond their present hopes. The work of the 

 Institute during the twenty-two years of its existence was recorded in the 

 annual volumes of the New Zealand Institute, and was, or ought to be, 

 familiar in some degree, at least, to all members. Therefore he would not 

 attempt any analysis of the society's work, or comparison with that of 

 the other affiliated societies, further than to say that up to within a few 

 years back we quite held our own, and, although our articles had latterly 

 fallen off in numbers, thcj- had always compared very favourably in use- 

 ful matter v/ith the whole. After referring to the high value of the work 

 recorded in the annual volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute, the President gave instances of the direct value to colonists 

 of some of the papers, and cited the case of the scale-blight [Tccrya 

 imrcliasi), and the manner in which its destructive effects had been 

 neutralized by sound entomological research, which led to the discovery 

 and introduction of its natural enemy, Yedalia cardinaVis. He next re- 

 ferred to the valuable nature of the Institute library, and urged that it 

 should be made a thoroughly good reference library for all branches of 

 scientific and technological literature, leaving the field of general litera- 

 ture to the public library, and of educational literature to the University 

 library. He criticized tlie present education system as being too rigid, 

 and not allowing each pupil to follow his own natural bent, and con- 



