58 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



Ross in 1841, he ever afterward referred as the most memorable events 

 in his scientific career. From the latter date, after his philological and 

 linguistic studies, that of the vegetation of the northern island was 

 paramount. During the many journeys which he made, often through 

 previously unvisited mountain regions, he observed and collected 

 continuously, making discoveries that shed unexpected light on the 

 affinities of the New Zealand Flora with those of Australia,, South 

 America and the Antarctic Islands. Nor did his zeal diminish with 

 age, for, as the result of an expedition made in his eighty-seventh year, 

 he sent to Kew specimens and observations of plants made en route. 

 His botanical writings, though numerous, are, as those on other 

 branches of biology, fragmentary. They commence with one on 

 Ferns, communicated to the ' Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science ' 

 in 1844 ; others occupy many volumes of the last-named work, of the 

 ' Transactions of the New Zealand Institute/ and of the Hawke's Bay 

 Philosophical Institute. Of these latter, the most important are : An 

 account of visits to the Ruahine Mountains in 1845 and 1847, which is 

 a repertory of information on the geography and vegetation of the 

 previously unexplored regions visited ; the first account of the dis- 

 covery of the Dinornis bones; on the ancient (now extinct) dog of 

 New Zealand ; on the Maori races ; on the vegetable food of the ancient 

 New Zealanders ; on the traditions of the Maoris, and on their sense of 

 colour. Altogether, Mr. Colenso is credited with the authorship of 

 thirty-two articles in the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers 

 down to the year 1883, and many have since appeared in the volumes 

 of the New Zealand Institute. 



For upwards of sixty years Mr. Colenso systematically took advan- 

 tage of his unique opportunities for collecting information regarding 

 the language, customs, myths, proverbs, songs, &c., of the Maoris, 

 subjects that had a special fascination for him, and as the information 

 obtained was direct from native sources some of it from men who 

 remembered Captain Cook's visits, and antedated the corruptions 

 introduced by Europeans the collection is of unique value. 



In 1861 Mr. Colenso entered Parliament as representative of Napier, 

 when he moved and carried a resolution that the time had come for the 

 State to make an organised attempt to rescue the dying language of 

 New Zealand from oblivion. Being at the time unable to undertake 

 such a work himself, he offered to present the Government with his 

 whole collection of materials for it. In 1865 the Government took up 

 the subject, and in 1866 Mr. Colenso, then being more at liberty, was 

 successfully urged, as the one man in New Zealand thoroughly qualified, 

 to take up the work. Seven years was fixed for its completion, the 

 remuneration to be 300 per annum. Before half that period had 

 expired, another Ministry, with other views of the value of a Lexicon, 

 had supervened, by whom its author was informed that, half the time 



