442 Proceedings. 



i£32 Os. 4(1. Tlie subscriptions for tlie year amonnted to <£15o 8s., and the 

 Provincial Government made a grant to tlie Society of £100 for the purchase 

 of books and museum objects. The amount of £79 12s. 3d. has been 

 expended in books, and £73 3s. on objects for the Museum. 



Election of Officers for 1872. — President, T. Heale; Council — 

 J. L. Campbell, M.D., T. B. Gillies, Eev. A. G. Purchas, M.R.C.S.K, 

 Hon. Col. Haultain, T. "Russell, T. Kirk, F.L.S., J. Stewart, C.E., H. H. 

 Lusk, T. F. S. Tinne, J. M. Clark, Rev. J. Kinder, M.A. 



Second Meeting. 24^7i Jitne, 1872. 



T. Heale, President, in the chair. 



New meinbers.—T. L. White, S. P. Smith, N. Kelly, R. J. Pearce, E. 

 Perkins. 



The list of donations to the Library and Museum was read by the Secretary. 

 The President delivered the following anniversary 



ADDRESS. 



I propose, in opening this session, to take a slight and cursory review of 

 some of the leading subjects which are agitating scientific opinion at home, 

 and the familiarizing of which by discussion here should, in my opinion, form 

 one of the leading objects of this Society, in due subordination, of course, to 

 its proper function of investigating, discussing, and recording the natural 

 phenomena around us. 



The difficulty of keeping the mind at all on a level with current knowledge 

 and advancement on the larger subjects of investigation, is one of the disadvan- 

 tages incident to a colonial life. This disadvantage our Society has striven 

 to lessen by obtaining, as far as its slender means have afforded, a nucleus of a 

 scientific library, to which we hope to make continual additions, and which is 

 freely open to the public. I propose to make an attempt to utilize these books, 

 or at all events to draw attention to them, by one of those slight and conver- 

 sational papers which I have before recommended, and which though not 

 suitable for publication in our Transactions, inasmuch as it is not scientific, 

 nor based on original investigation, may serve to stimulate attention and 

 perhaps to elicit replies, and so to make our monthly meeting more interesting 

 to those members not devoted to natural history. 



I think I am safe in assuming that by far the leading place in scientific, or 

 indeed in intelligent unscientific thought, is occupied in our day by the dis- 

 cussions arising out of the great and fertile theory of the development of 

 species, propounded by Mr. Darwin; a theory which Prof. Huxley has happily 



