throughout the Colony; tor a large accession has lately taken place to the 

 number of members of the affiliated societies; while new societies have been 

 organized, and propose to seels incorporation. 



A;< the first volume of our Transactions has been for some time in the 

 hands of the members o£ the Institute and of the public, it is only necessary 

 for me to nS<:r briefly to com'; of its more prominent contents. It cannot fail 

 to be generally acknowledged that the records of the proceedings of thesereral 

 departments are remarkable for the great variety of topicH which they embrace. 

 A /if J here I should mention that the brilliant essay by Mr. Fitzgerald, to 

 whose eloquence we all listened with delight, has been, by his own desire, 

 reserved for the volume to be published next year. 



Among the less formal communications embodied in the printed Proceed- 

 ings, we observe practical suggestions concerning building materials, agrieul- 

 tural processes, and metallurgy ; on the preparation and manufacture of the 

 indigenous flax ( Phovnwwm temccx), which i; 1 . rapidly becoming an important 

 industry in this Colony ; notices of the results of the chemical analyses of a 

 great variety of vegetable ami mineral productions ; and records of Uj<; striking 

 natural phenomena that occurred during the, past year. 



The communications published at length afford elaborate information ; 

 and I will now glance at a few of the chief points of interest which they 

 present. 



The first paper, by Mr. Crawford, calls attention to some obscure pheno- 

 mena respecting erratic boulders in the North [gland, which appeared to him 

 to have required the intervention of ice to effect their distribution. Considering 

 the vast extent of surface over which the operations of that mighty ice tool, 

 the glacier, have recently been recognized in tin-, Northern Hemisphere, our 

 geologists should search closely for similar evidence in all the mountain centres 

 of New Zealand. Dr. Haast, and other explorer:!, have shown that in the 

 Month [sland there are still glaciers rivalling in magnitude those of the Alps 

 of Europe 5 that in former ages they wore even of greater extent, and that 

 there are no sufficiently marked differences in the climate of this country to 

 warrant the assumption that glaciers could not have existed at some remote 

 period, in valleys radiating from the mountains, which are even now viniblo 

 from Wellington, an ranges covered with snow during several months of the 

 year. It appears, indeed, that so lately as in 1863, an avalanche of ico forced 



Its Way Cor a distance Of Seventy mile,",, from Itiiapchu, in the centre of this 



Island, to the sea, by the Wangaehn river. 



Mr. MantelTs address on the Moa, is particularly valuable, as embodying 



the results alike Of his Scientific knowledge and of bin extensive rosoarchoH. 



Many of yon, gentlemen, have had the pleasure of inspecting the group 

 of skeletons of the Moa in the Christchurch Museum, The effect is very 

 striking and suggestive; and when we odnsider that these are stated by 



