446 Proceedings. 
our social convulsions. Assuredly, I am one of those who desire, I will not say 
with sincerity, for the word is too feeble, but who desire with inexpressible ardour, 
and by all means possible, to ameliorate the lot of all who suffer; but the first of 
all amelioration is to give them hope. How greatly lessened are our finite sufferings when 
there shines into the midst of them an infinite hope! The duty of us all, whoever we 
may be, legislators and bishops, priests, authors, and journalists, is to spread abroad, to 
dispense and to lavish in every form the social energy necessary to combat poverty and 
suffering, and at the same time to bid every face to be lifted up to Heaven, to direct every 
soul and mind to a future life, where justice shall be executed. We must declare with a 
loud voice that none shall have suffered uselessly, and that justice shall be rendered to all. 
Death itself shall be restitution. As the law of the material universe is equilibrium, so 
the law of the moral universe is equity. God will be found at the end of all." 
1. ‘Notes on a Disease among Sheep in the Waikato District," by Major 
W. G. Mair. . 
Ix mid-summer, 1877-8, sheep in Upper Waikato were affected by a disease 
hitherto unknown to sheep-breeders in the district. The symptoms were 
described as being not unlike those caused by eating ergotized grass, viz., 
throwing up the head, jerking it suddenly to one side, then staggering back 
and falling. "These symptoms suggested an affection of the brain, and upon 
some of the sheep being killed for examination, one or more maggots were, 
in every instance, found apparently eating through the substance of the 
brain ; in some cases smaller maggots were found in the nasal passages, in- 
dicating that it was by the nostril that the parasite found its way into thé 
sheep's head! In one instance, an unusually large maggot was found 
under the base of the tongue. I could not ascertain whether any sheep had 
died from this disease, and many well-conditioned animals were found, upon 
being slaughtered, to be infested by these parasites. The maggots are in 
some instances fully three-quarters of an inch in length by half an inch in 
breadth ; the colour is a dirty white, with two triangular black spots at the 
nether extremity. 
When placed upon a smooth surface they travel with a brisk undulating 
motion like that of the caterpillar, and they are very retentive of life, being 
quite lively after three days’ imprisonment in a match-box. I have no idea 
what the perfect insect may be like, but there was a fly common about 
sheep yards at the time when these observations were made, and as it 
appears to be new, it is possible that it may be the one which deposits the 
maggots, either in the sheeps’ nostrils, or in their food. 
I am indebted to Messrs. Kirk and Connell, of the Armed Constabulary, 
for the greater part of my information. 
Several members pointed out that the disease described by the author was due to the 
Gistrus, or Gad-fly, which appears to be increasing in numbers in New Zealand. 
2. “ On the Occurrence of the Genus Sporadanthus in New Zealand,” by 
T. F. Cheesman, F.L.S. (Transactions, p. 824.) 
