xvi President's Address 



geographical distribution thoroughly known. The increased 

 traffic with Polynesia, and notably with New Guinea, 

 Samoa, and the New Hebrides, has opened up new botanical 

 treasures, and by the kind and zealous aid of missionaries 

 and other friends, Baron von Mueller has been able to 

 make known several highly interesting novelties from these 

 islands. That the Baron is still unable to resume his 

 phytochemical researches and inquiries into the utilitarian 

 value of our native vegetable products, for want of means 

 and appliances, is a matter we must all regret, more especi- 

 ally as the investigations he made some years ago in this 

 direction promised to be of great value to the country. 



The National Museum at the University is constantly 

 adding to its stores, and some important additions have been 

 made this year from the International Exhibition just closed. 

 It now contains 45,250 specimens, labelled, arranged, and 

 catalogued. The delay in the publication of the decades 

 of the natural history of the colony seems now to ha ye been 

 overcome, for one decade of zoology and one of paleontology 

 will now soon be out of the printer's hands. Each of these 

 decades that issues facilitates the study of natural science 

 by enabling observers to identify objects. 



Our members have always taken an interest in the pro- 

 gress of the technological school and museum attached to the 

 Public Library, and they will be pleased to hear that not 

 only has the museum been greatly increased during the past 

 twelve months — partly by purchase, but chiefly by donations 

 — by collections valued at over £5000, but the technical 

 classes show increased vitality. There have been 43 pupils 

 in the chemical and 44 in the mechanical engineering classes. 

 To meet an urgent requirement for the proper carrying out 

 of the Pharmacy Act, a new series of class lectures on 

 chemistry, pharmacy, and materia medica has been insti- 

 tuted at this school. Independent of the teaching, some 

 good work is being done in the laboratory in technical 

 research. Mr. Dunn's investigations in food adulteration 



