WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



FiKST Meeting : 14th June, 1893. 



Major-General Schaw, C.B., E.E., President, in the Chair. 



Neiv Members. — E. L. Mestayer, C.E., Eev. W. Eowse, 

 T. Stoddart Lambert. 



Addbess by the Pkesidbnt. 



As your Council has conferred upon me the great honour 

 of nominating me as your President for the current year, the 

 duty devolves upon me of opening our session by an inaugural 

 address. I could wish that the honour and the duty had fallen 

 to the lot of some one more worthy both by long service in our 

 Society aiid by thorough acquaintance with some one, at least, 

 of the many subjects which come within our province ; but, 

 as it has been your pleasure to confer upon me this tem- 

 porary patent of nobility, noblesse oblige, and I can but fulfil 

 its accompanying duties to the best of my ability, in the hope 

 that the same kind partiality which has selected me will also 

 excuse the defects of my address. 



On looking over the Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute for 1892, I observe that, of the seventy-six articles 

 composing the volume, no less than twenty-two were contri- 

 buted by members of the Wellington Philosophical Society; 

 the remaining fifty-four by the societies of Auckland, Hawke's 

 Bay, Canterbury, and Otago. Wellington has therefore well 

 done its duty towards philosophy during the past year. I 

 hope that the present year may not show much falling-off, 

 notwithstanding the very serious loss we sustain by the absence 

 of Sir Walter Buller, who, although he was unable to complete 

 his intended address, contributed, nevertheless, five valuable 

 papers last year. 



The outlook for the present session is at this moment not 

 quite so satisfactory as one could wish, but few papers having 

 been promised as yet. I understand, however, from our 



