504 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 
selected. It is scarcely necessary for me to point out to you of what great 
importance, principally in a newly-inhabited country, a public museum is; 
how many invisible influences it exercises in almost every direction; how 
thought, observation and research are incited by its existence; how, in a 
pleasant way, youth and age alike gain knowledge; and how, in one word, 
the intellectual and material welfare of the province have been promoted in 
many ways by its help. Similar thoughts were doubtless passing through 
the mind of Mr. William Sefton Moorhouse, Superintendent of the Pro- 
vince, when in December, 1860, at the request of that able statesman, I 
came to Christchurch to fill the post of Provincial Geologist, the first 
appointment of that kind made in the Colony of New Zealand. Having 
before my arrival in Christchurch been travelling over and examining 
several parts of the colony, I brought with me seven cases of specimens, 
mostly geological, rocks, minerals, ores and fossils, together with a herba- 
rium. These formed the first nucleus of the Canterbury Museum, many of 
them being still exhibited in their proper places. 
The office of the Geological Survey was then situated in the north- 
eastern side of the Government Buildings, on the first floor, consisting of 
the high tower room, my office, and inner low room, in which, on long 
tables, the collections as they gradually increased were placed. 
The specimens brought by me from my former journeys to Canterbury 
i of :— 
220 rocks, minerals, ores and fossils from the Province of Auckland. 
15 rocks from the Province of Taranaki. 
235 rocks, minerals, ores and fossils from the Province of Nelson. 
470 specimens in all. 
From my first journeys in Canterbury to the head-waters of the Rangi- 
tata, the Malvern Hills, and the head-waters of the Waitaki, such large 
collections were brought, that already in 1863, 742 specimens of rocks, si es, 
and minerals, and 520 fossils, had been added to the collections belonging 
to the Province. 
Amongst other collections, 182 specimens of New Zealand shells had 
already been added. In 1862, at my suggestion, the Provincial Council 
voted £100 for the purchase of type collections in mineralogy, lithology, 
palgontology, and conchology, which were obtained from the Mineralien 
Comptoir, in Heidelberg, Germany, under very favourable conditions. 
contained 2,613 well-selected specimens, many of them of permanent value 
_ About the same time Professor Ferdinand von Hochstetter, rh rng 
‘pom tela mp as i of ee a 
warm friend and supporter. i= antiatien of Geen ON 
