xxxviii. New Zealand Institute. 
popular of modern novelists; Stanley Jevons, the logician; and, 
last not least, Spottiswoode, the late President of the Royal 
Society, a man celebrated no less for his ability and scientific attain- 
ments than for his high character and benevolence, lately laid to 
rest in Westminster Abbey, amidst statesmen, warriors, poets, and 
heroes of literature and science, whose names will ever be honoured 
throughout the British Empire. 
And now, having referred to the history of the Institute in the 
past, and glanced at a few of the principal events which have recently 
taken place in the world of science and literature, 1 turn to the 
future, and ask, what do we set before us as the object of the Insti- 
tute, and with what attainment may we rest content ? I have already 
spoken of the various subjects which were specially recommended for 
study fourteen years ago. Of these, some few (such as the history 
of the Maori race, about which Mr. Colenso, Mr. Travers, and others 
have contributed valuable and exhaustive papers) may be considered as 
almost completed ; others, perhaps, have for various reasons ceased to 
be of importance ; but the large majority call for further investigation, 
and will for many years demand careful research. I think, too, that 
the time has come when it may fairly be considered whether the 
subjects on which papers are specially desired should not take a wider 
range. The Institute and the incorporated societies supply machinery 
which is already being utilized, but which I believe to be capable of 
being utilized to a greater extent than it is at present, in the grand 
work of diffusing general education. In this sense I regard the 
Institute as supplementary to the schools, which are so rapidly 
increasing in number, and the University Colleges which are being 
established in all the centres of population in New Zealand, as a 
means by which that spirit of inquiry which has been aroused in early 
youth may find scope in later life. The great discoveries that are 
being every day made in the scientific world show us that, in 
the present state of society, some amount of scientific education 
is, in most cases, essential to make a successful practical man, 
a faet which none are more ready to admit than those who them- 
selves feel the want of such a training. At the same time I would 
impress on every member of the Society that science, in the 
popular sense of the term, is only a part of education; and I trust 
the day may be far distant when literature is neglected, as some 
fear it may be, for the study alone of purely external objects. 
I believe that vast good is done by those who bring before the notice 
of others the thoughts and actions of great men, whether in ancient 
or modern times, in other parts of the world, By this means, a 
healthy desire for improvement may be instilled into the minds of 
