CoLENSO. — Presidential Address. 135 



Mr. F. H. Meinertzhagen and Mr. H. S. Tiffen, were old and 

 valuable members of our Institute ; both of them were original 

 members from its foundation in 1874 (when lovers of natural 

 science were few who joined us), and these require a special 

 brief notice. 



Mr. Meinertzhagen resided for severtil years at Wai- 

 marama, a little south of Cape Kidnappers, where he carried 

 on his natural science investigations, and from him I received 

 several letters and specimens, and also interesting letters 

 from London after his leaving New Zealand. He early 

 became a life member, paying the £10 fee — and here I may 

 remark that at the same time, or, rather, for ten years preced- 

 ing, he was also a member of the Auckland auxiliary branch, 

 of which society he was also a life member. This double 

 membership, with their expenses, and not being able to attend 

 any of our meetings owing to the distance of his residence 

 from Napier, shows his appreciation of natural science and of 

 our New Zealand Institute. A paper of his on a new species 

 of Aplysia will be found in the " Transactions of the New 

 Zealand Institute," vol. xii., p. 270, which also further 

 indicates his modesty and kindheartedness. 



Mr. H. S. Tiffen also was one of the founders of our 

 society. Although he wrote no paper for our meetings, he 

 was always a warm supporter of them, while his beautiful and 

 extensive garden, greenhouse, hothouse, and ferneries were 

 always cheerfully open at our service. From the ferneries 

 especially, containing such a large and varied collection of 

 both foreign and native ferns, both Mr. Hamilton (our late 

 curator) and myself have derived much valuable, true, and 

 living information with specimens. Mr. Tiffen, being a de- 

 voted lover and disciple of Flora, introduced a large number 

 of flowering-plants, shrubs, and trees from various parts of the 

 globe regardless of expense, his flower-garden, the admiration 

 of visitors and tourists, being the best one in Napier, if not on 

 the whole east coast of New Zealand. 



Our society being a branch of the New Zealand Institute 

 (and bearing in mind the ancient, natural, and instructive 

 Eoman fable by Menenius Agrippa to the mutineers, of the 

 body and its members, "Livy," ii., 32), I should not omit to 

 bring to your notice, with all due respect, the death of another 

 member of the New Zealand Institute, one of the first scien- 

 tific men, if not the earliest resident pioneer of science, in 

 New Zealand— the late Hon. W. B. D. Mantell, M.L.C., 

 F.G.S., &c., with whom I was always most friendly acquainted. 

 Mr. Mantell, although not a member of our branch society, 

 was a member of the Wellington auxiliary branch from its 

 beginning, and also one of the founders of the still earlier 

 Wellington Philosophical Society, and one of the nominated 



