368 Proceedings. 
have never been hitherto obtained, and he had given notice of the title of a 
paper describing them, which he intended to have laid before the Society this 
evening. I am sure that you will all agree with me that his loss will be felt 
at our meetings, and we shall miss the good example which he set us, of the 
strong and earnest love of science for its own sake. 
Our Society has now been re-constituted for six years, and I think there 
is every reason for congratulation in the progress which has been made during 
that period, not only in the increased value and interest of the communications 
which are read to the Society, but also in the gradual increase in the number 
of members, and, what is still even more important, in the number of members 
who take an active part in our meetings. 
The annual report of the affairs of the Society has been, for the first time, 
printed in the current volume for the year. Hitherto it has been included in 
the proceedings for the subsequent year. From this report it appears that, 
with those we have just elected, the Society includes 142 members. 
The fifth volume of Transactions of the New Zealand Institute has been 
distributed to our members for some months, so that I may assume all who 
are present this evening have, at least to some slight extent, made them- 
selves acquainted with its contents, and with the share which is occupied in it 
by the contributions of this Society. At our meetings last year forty-eight 
original papers were presented to the Society, some of which possess a value 
from the originality of research which they show, which will make our 
Transactions in future times important for reference. 
In reviewing these communications, the first in order, and also in 
importance from the general interest which it cannot fail to excite, is Mr. 
Travers' history of * The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha." The career of 
this remarkable man is not merely of interest from its association with the 
early history of the colonization of these islands, but it affords a useful subject 
for study in connection with the more general historical question of the 
rapidity with which changes have been effected in uncivilized races, and the 
aptitude which they show in acquiring the arts, both peaceable and warlike, 
from conquerors or colonists, as the cfise may be. At the same time, this is 
only a small portion of the valuable material relating to the Maori race which 
would find a fitting place in the publication of this and the other affiliated 
Societies of the Institute. The Maori present a peculiarity of mental type, 
the reason for which is not yet fully explained. As a race they show evidence 
of greater mental vigour than might have been expected in a people possessing 
no written language. The facility with which they acquire our written 
language, and the delight which they take in exercising it—in reducing to 
writing their ancient waiatas (songs) and traditions—is of itself a remarkable 
evidence of this vigour of mind. In passing, I should, however, say that the 
