CHAPTER XIil 
IN AND ABOUT WELLINGTON, CAPITAL OF 
NEW ZEALAND 
A good room with a fireplace at the Empire hotel was certainly 
a much appreciated luxury, although it involved an extra charge 
of three shillings a day; but it was worth it. 
After lunch, Mr. Oliver took me in a government auto to visit 
the University. There we met Professor Kirk, the zodlogist, to - 
whom I owe many courtesies. He is doing excellent work and is 
very active as a teacher and as a research man. We took four 
o’elock tea in one of the college buildings where I met a good 
many of the instructional staff. These teas are a regular part of 
the daily routine in all British colleges and serve a valuable social 
purpose in furnishing a daily point of contact between all the 
teachers. Professor Kirk arranged a collecting trip on which he 
expected to show me live Peripatus, one of the objectives of our 
visit there. He also hoped to show me a serpent-star that under- 
goes a direct development without the metamorphosis characteristic 
of echinoderms in general. 
I then went with Mr. Hislop to eall on Mr. Cecil Day, Official 
Secretary of his Excellency, the Governor, Lord Jellicoe, to whom 
I delivered my letters of introduction from our Secretary of State 
and the British Ambassador at Washington. We called also on 
the Hon. Downie Stewart, Minister of Internal Affairs, with whom 
I had a short but satisfactory interview. The minister is crippled 
greatly from rheumatism contracted during the war, but carries 
on very efficiently in spite of the handicap. 
Then back to the hotel for an excellent dinner and a pleasant 
room which was actually comfortable, my first experience of the 
kind in New Zealand. Although this luxury was expensive I 
found that it was to the interest of the University and our ex- 
pedition to occupy better quarters than we did in Auckland, re- 
membering what Consul MeVittey had said regarding the matter 
of ‘‘externals’’ in New Zealand; moreover, as we were paying 
our personal expenses this involved no extra expense to the 
University. That night I slept in the most comfortable bed I had 
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