xxxviii. Neiu Zealand Institute. 



popular of modern novelists ; Stanley Jevons, the logician ; and, 

 last not least, Spottiswoode, the late President of the Royal 

 Society, a man celebrated no less for his ability and scientific attain- 

 ments than for his high character and benevolence, lately laid to 

 rest in Westminster Abbey, amidst statesmen, warriors, poets, and 

 heroes of literature and science, whose names will ever be honoured 

 throughout the British Empire. 



And now, having referred to the history of the Institute in the 

 past, and glanced at a few of the principal events which have recently 

 taken place in the world of science and literature, I turn to the 

 future, and ask, what do we set before us as the object of the Insti- 

 tute, and with what attainment may we rest content ? I have already 

 spoken of the various subjects which were specially recommended for 

 study fourteen years ago. Of these, some few (such as the history 

 of the Maori race, about which Mr. Colenso, Mr. Travers, and others 

 have contributed valuable and exhaustive papers) may be considered as 

 almost completed ; others, perhaps, have for various reasons ceased to 

 be of importance ; but the large majority call for further investigation, 

 and will for many years demand careful research. I think, too, that 

 the time has come when it may fairly be considered whether the 

 subjects on which papers are specially desired should not take a wider 

 range. The Institute and the incorporated societies supply machinery 

 which is already being utilized, but which I believe to be capable of 

 being utilized to a greater extent than it is at present, in the grand 

 work of diffusing general education. In this sense I regard the 

 Institute as supplementary to the schools, which are so rapidly 

 increasing in number, and the University Colleges which are being 

 established in all the centres of population in New Zealand, as a 

 means by which that spirit of inquiry which has been aroused in early 

 youth may find scope in later life. The great discoveries that are 

 being every day made in the scientific world show us that, in 

 the present state of society, some amount of scientific education 

 is, in most cases, essential to make a successful practical man, 

 a fact which none are more ready to admit than those who them- 

 selves feel the want of such a training. At the same time I would 

 impress on every member of the Society that science, in the 

 popular sense of the term, is only a part of education ; and I trust 

 the day may be far distant when literature is neglected, as some 

 fear it may be, for the study alone of purely external objects. 

 I believe that vast good is done by those who bring before the notice 

 of others the thoughts and actions of great men, whether in ancient 

 or modern times, in other parts of the world. By this means, a 

 healthy desire for improvement may be instilled into the minds of 



