NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE. 
GENERAL MEETING. 204% September, 1873. 
His Excellency the Rt. Hon. Sir James Fergusson, Bart., President, 
in the chair. 
FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT BY THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS. 
Five years have now elapsed since the foundation of the New Zealand 
Institute, and this being the first occasion of a change of its official President, 
it affords an opportunity for a brief retrospect of the results which have been 
achieved through its instrumentality. 
'The chief object of the Act under which the Institute was incorporated 
was to promote the formation of societies in different parts of the colony for 
the collection and discussion of original observations concerning its natural 
history and resources, It was obvious that the geographical circumstances of 
the colony prevented the formation of any strong central society capable of 
stimulating and directing such investigations by frequent meetings of its 
members, as in other colonies that possess a chief centre of population, in which 
all social institutions become naturally concentrated. The constitution of the 
New Zealand Institute furnishes, therefore, a means of combining the efforts of 
provincial societies, at the same time relieving them of the great expense 
which they would have to incur in publishing their Transactions in an 
independent form. Experience elsewhere has shown that, in new countries 
especially, the funds of such societies are inadequate for the proper production 
of their Transactions, from the fact that the number of their members is few 
and the field for original observation is large, so that in a few years such 
societies are liable to decay, after accumulating much material that would be, 
if published, of great assistance in advancing our knowledge of the country. 
^ Each scientific society in New Zealand that becomes affiliated to the 
Institute receives a share of an annual parliamentary grant, in proportion to 
the amount of work which is performed by its members, and the result is the 
production of a volume of Transactions and Proceedings that carries more 
authority, and does more credit to the colony, than could be derived from the 
publication of a number of detached pamphlets. 
The form of constitution thus indicated has already evoked favourable 
expressions of opinion in some of the leading scientific journals of the old 
country, and it has even been seriously proposed that a similar institution 
should be established for consolidating the work of the different scientific 
societies seattered throughout Great Britain. 
Although there is still much room for improvement, a comparison of the 
