NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



OF 



THE PRESIDENT, 



HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE F. BOWEN, G.C.M.G. 



Delivered to the Members of the New Zealand Institute, at the 

 Anniversary Meeting, held on the 24th July, IS69. 



Gentlemen, — 



It is the well-known duty of the President of every Society, such as 

 is the New Zealand Institute, to open the annual session with a review of the 

 proceedings of the past year, and of the general condition and progress of the 

 Association. This is a deliberate pause, as when a guide, showing a mountainous 

 and interesting country, calls upon a party of travellers to look back on the 

 scenes which they have just passed, and the difficulties which they have 

 already surmounted, and to contemplate the prospect around and before them. 

 In my Inaugural Address at the opening ceremony of last year, I 

 explained the character and objects of this Institute ; and showed that the 

 main object of the Legislature in founding it, was to provide guidance and 

 aid for the people of New Zealand in the practical work of colonization. The 

 recently published volume of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Institute, 

 and of its affiliated societies, during the first year of its existence, proves that 

 this eminently practical object has been carefully kept in sight ; while there is 

 abundant promise of future usefulness. It should here be mentioned that the 

 value of this volume has been considerably increased by the incorporation of a 

 series of Essays, some of which were placed at the disposal of the Governors, 

 in a printed form, having been issued at Dunedin shortly after the Exhibition 

 of 1865, through the indefatigable exertions of the Honorary Secretary, Dr. 

 Eccles. The progress already achieved appears to have been appreciated 



