14 New Zealand Institute. 
Behind us lies a night of fearful gloom, unillumined by the light of written 
records, of picture memorials, of aught which can give a certain idea of the 
past. A few stray streaks of light, in the form of tradition, of oral poetry, 
of carved records, are the only guides we have. And, in the gloom of that 
night, are fast fading out of view, although dim outlines of them are still 
visible, some of the most fearful spectres which have ever stalked amongst 
mankind in the hideous shapes of idolatry, human sacrifice, and cannibalism, 
mixed up with which, in uncouth unison, is much of real poetry and of 
actual grace of fancy. Future generations will almost doubt that such 
gloomy forms of thought have haunted their highly cultivated and civilized 
homes, or that a people debased by such barbarities could yet have felt 
and cherished so much of the poetic and good; and if they could then 
question us who have seen these now fading superstitions ere they wholly 
vanished, what eager questions they would propose to us regarding their 
monstrous shapes, their horrid aspect, the rude and inharmonious voices with 
which, with horrid shouts and yells, their orgies were fulfilled!. How eagerly 
the poet, the painter, the sculptor, would seek to recover some traits of their 
terrible lineaments, or of their softer outlines when they related to scenes 
of the gentler passions or of domestic life !—that either a stern grandeur or 
the romantic glow of a primitive state of existence might be imparted to 
some work of art.” 
To these graphic and striking words I will only add that no problem of 
ethnology, no question of political economy (in its best and most practical 
sense), can be regarded as alien to us Britons, who, throughout our vast 
Empire, are brought into contact with so many and such diverse nations 
The noble exhortation addressed to the Romans of old by their greatest 
poet is, in its spirit, equally applicable to our own Imperial race, which now 
rules those Indian realms that baffled the arms of Alexander, and is fast 
peopling and replenishing that Australasia, or * Great Southern Land," 
which lay beyond the charts of Nearchus and Strabo, of Marco Polo and 
Columbus :— 
Excudent alii spirantia mollius æ 
Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent ; 
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento ; ; 
tibi erunt artes.* 
He 
Tf I did not feel that I had already trespassed too long on your attention, 
I would, in conclusion, urge the expediency of the encouragement, in some 
departments of the colleges and schools in this new land, of that technical - 
and scientific education which is now year by year asserting a higher place 
* Virgil, Zn. VL, 848-853. 
