Otago Institute. 443 
the excellent report of Mr. Vincent Pyke, dated lst October, 1862, where a 
very fair and full account has been given of the whole subject. 
My observations and the deductions therefrom were those of a pioneering 
and exploring surveyor, engaged for the purpose of facilitating the operations 
of first settlement. Since then momentous events have taken place, the most 
marked of which was the great gold discovery of Mr. Gabriel Read in June, 
1861, and which has contributed so much to the promotion of the material 
wealth of this part of New Zealand. But how the progress of Otago has 
affected science is the question that engages this Institute. 
I may mention, in passing, that when Mr. Gabriel Read was in the act of 
weighing out to me the gold of his first claim, he prophetically remarked that 
the face of the country would henceforth be changed. And so it has. 
Enterprise in all pursuits and avocations has been stimulated, and what were 
then barren wastes have been eonverted into smiling plains of waving corn, 
and the valleys in the iuterior resound with the din of manual and mechanical 
industry. The Government, by the inerease of revenue, was enabled to engage 
scientifie and professional men from abroad in the various departments. 
First, as being purely scientific, are to be mentioned the observations and 
explorations by Dr. Hector, F.R.S., so widely spread over all parts of the 
Province, even to the most inaccessible places ; and which have been since 
extended to all New Zealand. For Otago this great good was done, that the 
publie had the advantage of the opinions of a scientific man, based on our text- 
word-—actual “observation.” They therefore obtained, by one competent 
mind at work, substantial results that never could be attained to by any 
number of unregulated, unauthoritative parties, however experienced particular 
individuals might be. During the few years that Dr. Hector was with us he 
not only illustrated the general geology of the Province and made maps of the 
same, but he also displayed to the public the nature of our mineral resources, 
their positions and comparative values—including gold, silver, copper and 
antimony, coal, lime, useful clays, etc. About the same time Mr. Vincent 
Pyke was engaged in organizing the Goldfields Department and promoting and 
recording new discoveries that electrified the public mind, at closely recurring 
intervals. To his care and supervision is due the Goldfields Map,-used as a 
work of reference to the present day. Messrs. Swyer, Paterson, and Balfour, 
civil engineers, were also induced to come to this distant part of the world, 
and to them is due the initiation of many of our public works in general, 
railway, and marine engineering respectively. Now the railway system of 
New Zealand is making rapid strides here, carrying out works of great 
magnitude and difficulty, which when completed will promote intercourse 
- between settlements widely separated and at present cut off by steep mountains 
and rapid rivers. The construction of the Oamaru break water—the design of 
