Auckland Institute. 461 
an essential service might be rendered with great advantage to the com- 
munity, also to a large body of men engaged in a laborious and hazardous 
pursuit. Much may, I am sure, be done by dünion. Co-operation in the 
present day is the great engine of progress. We see it made subservient to 
every variety of purpose. Man standing alone is but weak, but union gives 
a power which may almost be said to be irresistible. Co-operation not only 
concentrates means which are all but useless when dispersed ; it does more, 
it becomes creative, and gives life and development to new powers. The 
mere conflict of thought and opinion produces results not previously con- 
templated. 
I regard it as one of the most important advantages to arise from this 
Institute, that it may be made the means of bringing men together, not 
alone for their own amusement, but to work for the common good ; and, 
proceeding a step further, that it may be the means,also of interchanging 
opinions and information between the most distant parts of the colony. In 
our constitution and rules we have undertaken, as the object of this Insti- 
tute, the promotion of art, science, and literature, and we have at the same 
time previded ample means by which that object is to be attained. We 
purpose the establishment of a museum and a library, and, I trust, if the 
institution is sufficiently supported, that we shall be able to add a laboratory. 
Lectures, periodical meetings, the reading of original papers, and conversa- 
tions and discussions, are all designed to the same end. 
I need not point out how useful in days gone by would have been a 
library such as that now contemplated, and of what essential service would 
have been a museum well stored with specimens. I feel a conviction that 
one of the greatest benefits that could be conferred on a newly established 
settlement, in a country but little known, would be to provide for it a 
library well supplied with books on the arts and sciences, and a well and 
judiciously filled museum. 
It may be regretted that what we are now doing has not been done 
before, and it is a reasonable matter for regret; but this affords an 
additional argument why no further delay should take place. We have now 
made a commencement under more than ordinarily favourable circum- 
stances, and if failure should ensue, it will be from want of energy and 
well-directed efforts on our parts. On the one hand we must not be too 
sanguine or confident, and on the other not too readily depressed by diffi- 
culties or discouraged by slowness of progress. We should bear in mind 
that some years ago, at Wellington, an institution of a similar character to 
that now established enjoyed but a short and, apparently, not very successful 
life. The failure, no doubt, resulted from want of activity and energy in 
the management, and adequate support from the people. That institution 
