282 Canadian Record of Science. 



if any, but very local shocks experienced in New Zealand have 

 originated from any volcanic focus we are acquainted with, 

 while a westerly propagation of the ordinary vibrations 

 rarely passes the great fault that marks the line of active 

 disturbance. In Japan, also, out of about 480 shocks which 

 are felt each year in that country, each of which, on an 

 average, shakes about one thousand square miles, there are 

 many that cannot be ascribed to volcanic origin. There are 

 many other problems of practical importance that can only 

 be studied from the base line of a properly equipped obser- 

 vatory. These will readily occur to physical students, who 

 are better acquainted with the subject than I am. I can 

 only express the hope that the improved circumstances of 

 the colony will permit some steps to be taken. Already in 

 this city, I understand, some funds have been subscribed. 

 As an educational institution, to give practical application 

 to our students in physical science, geodesy and navigation, 

 it would clearly have a specific value that would greatly 

 benefit the colony. Another great branch of physical 

 science, chemistry, should be of intense interest to colo- 

 nists in a new country. Much useful work has been done, 

 though not by many workers. The chief application of 

 this science has been naturally to promote the development 

 of mineral wealth, to assist agriculture, and for the regu- 

 lation of mercantile contracts. I cannot refrain from men- 

 tioning the name of William Skey, analyist to the Geolo- 

 gical Survey, as the chemist whose researches during the 

 last twenty-eight years have far surpassed any other in New 

 Zealand. Outside his laborious official duties he has found 

 time to make about sixty original contributions to chemical 

 science, such as into the electrical properties of metallic 

 sulphides — the discovery of the ferro-nickel alloy awaruite 

 in the ultra-basi rocks of West Otago, which is highly in- 

 teresting, as it is the first recognition of this meteoric-like 

 iron as native to our planet — the discovery that the hydro- 

 carbon in torbasic and the gas shales is chemically and not 

 merely mechanically combined with the clay base — of a 

 remarkable color test for the presence of magnesia and the 



