CoLENSO. — Presidential Address. 137 



"Erebus," which ship (together with the "Terror," her 

 consort, forming the antarctic expedition), wintei-ed in the 

 Bay of Islands in 1841. Though Mr. Huxley has not been 

 particularly connected with New Zealand matters, yet of him 

 it may be also truly said, as of the great navigator Captain 

 Cook, he is " the man of all countries, all peoples, and all 

 times." Several other good reasons I certainly have for 

 bringing his name before you on this occasion arise from the 

 facts of his having long been a member of the Royal Society — 

 and at one time its President — and of the determination of 

 the Committee in London to erect a suitable memorial to his 

 memory, to be placed with those to Owen and to Darwin in 

 the Natural History Museum, South Kensington ; and of the 

 Committee writing to me (as a member of the Eoyal Society) 

 and to others of us here in New Zealand to consent to have 

 our names placed on the Committee-roll, and further to assist 

 in this great national work ; and especially from the fact of 

 Mr. Huxley having been actively engaged down to the last 

 hours of his life in promoting the superior and free education 

 of youth in the colonies. From official papers lately to hand 

 I find that at the first meeting of the Committee their list, 

 with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at the head, 

 included more than seven hundred eminent names, many of 

 them being distinguished foreigners. The closing sentence 

 from the speech of the President, Eoyal Society, Lord Kelvin, 

 who proposed the first resolution, I may briefly bring before 

 you : " His moral lessons from his biological work extended 

 even into the field of politics, and his contributions to thought 

 in respect of theology in themselves are such as to put 

 Huxley's name and fame in a very high position indeed, as a 

 man thoroughly determined to give all the benefit he could to 

 mankind — as a worker who gives his life, who saciifices his 

 health, who sacrifices his time, who gives up everything for 

 the advancement of science ; but, as he tells us himself, with 

 an object which he felt to be even greater than the advance- 

 ment of science, the promotion of the welfare, moral and 

 material, of mankind — who deserves a memorial or a monu- 

 ment better than Huxley? " 



Lord Playfair also, in supporting the resolution, said, 

 "It is scarcely necessary to say one word in regard to the 

 eminence and the scientific position of Professor Huxley ; 

 but it has been ]ny privilege to be associated with him in 

 many of his undertakings and labours as a public man. 

 . In higher education the Scotch University Commis- 

 sion benefited by his wise counsel and breadth of culture. 

 The present position of technical education also owes much to 

 the advocacy and the scientific lectures which Professor 

 Huxley gave through the country. There is one labour in 



