429 



will not cease from their labours ; nor will their children, or new-comers fail to do their 

 utmost, while pushing their own fortunes, to aid in advancing the general prosperity of 

 the province and the colony. 



Recognising all this, how much has been, how much remains to be done, it is certain 

 that the time has arrived to facilitate individual labour by the systematic collection of 

 information as to what has been accomplished, and pointing out the various directions in 

 which research or discovery would be most desirable, and most probably prove beneficial 

 to individual workers and the community at large. Here will be a great and almost 

 virgin field for the members of this Institute — to collect a really good library of works of 

 reference, a want that is continually being felt, notwithstanding that many useful works 

 are already to be found scattered amongst local libraries — to render more perfect that 

 Museum, which it is but scant justice to Dr. Hector to say, forms a splendid nucleus for 

 future additions — to collect and record fully and accurately facts of all kinds that relate 

 to our industrial development, even though at the moment we may not be able to 

 foresee their exact value or true bearing — to prepare practical papers, however short, and 

 it may be not altogether conclusive, to be elaborated by careful discussion at our meetings, 

 and to collect for the New Zealand Institute, and other such societies elsewhere, not only 

 museum, but trade specimens of our products, whether raw or manufactured, with full 

 and accurate information concerning them. 



The Royal Colonial Society, lately established in London, offers us great facilities for 

 the exhibition of our products in its Museum, and of maps, statistics, and records in its 

 Library, access to which wdl be so easy to those at home seeking information of any kind 

 as to the colony. No one who has himself encountered the difficulty of obtaining reliable 

 information on colonial subjects in Great Britain, or has observed, since he has himself 

 become acquainted with the colonies, the lamentable ignorance displayed by even leading 

 statesmen, affecting to govern them from Downing Street, will lightly estimate the 

 valuable services colonists and the Colonial Society may mutually afford each other, and 

 offer to enquirers, whether commercial, scientific, or public men at home. It would be 

 well then for a sub-committee of this Institute to be appointed to make collections, 

 representative of Otago and her resources, both for the Museum and the Library of the 

 Colonial Society. So good an example would be speedily followed by other societies 

 incorporated with the New Zealand Institute, and, after awhile, their united efforts 

 would result in a collection eminently useful to New Zealand interests in Great Britain. 

 "We may be sure, too, that other colonies will avail themselves of the organisation 

 afforded by the Colonial Society. Let us hope that there will soon be in that society's 

 rooms a museum and library worthy of the Colonial Empire, not only rivalling, but 

 surpassing the fine collection of Indian products and manufactures constituting the Indian 

 Museum in Whitehall. Let it not be said that the bureaucratic government of India is 

 more practically useful than the freer institutions of the colonies ; or that self-government 

 is but another name for slow material-development. Let colonists show to others what 

 they know themselves of the enormous extent and value of the resources of the colonies, 

 and then we may be sure the political value of these great countries will not, as now, be 

 either doubted or ignored. 



It would be necessary for the sub-committee to transmit with the specimens, etc., 

 full and precise information as to the products themselves, their situation, extent, cost, 

 transit, and other incidental charges, without which they would be mere curiosities, and of 

 little value economically ; and, in return for these contributions, we may fairly expect to 

 receive from the colonial and other societies to which they may be sent, copies of their 

 own publications, specimens of similar products obtained elsewhere to compare with ours, 

 samples of manufactures from them, and such reports on the commercial and scientific 

 value of the New Zealand specimens, as would be extremely useful to us as their 

 producers. 



We are, fortunately, able to obtain from the Director of the Geological Survey of 

 New Zealand, very valuable information on the mineralogical and chemical characters of 

 the ores, etc. , etc. , submitted to him ; but frequently it is desirable to get accurate 

 information as to the commercial value of products, and how far they can be made to 

 pay ; to obtain which, it is almost absolutely necessary, that they should be submitted 

 for examination and report to those trade experts, who are seldom found except in the 

 great marts of the world. 



Scattered as is the population of the province, might not we, enlarging on the 

 suggestion of our President in his eloquent inaugural address, establish branch or correspond- 

 ing societies in some of the country towns ? In these branch societies, would probably be 

 prepared and read, papers of a peculiarly practical bearing, on subjects specially interest- 

 ing in each particular locality, and which would be the more valuable from being discussed 

 on the spot by men possessing the advantages of local knowledge, and minute practical 

 acquaintance with their subjects. I could almost wish, too, that the efforts at present 

 scattered amongst so many public bodies in this province, such as the Agricultural and 

 Pastoral, the Acclimatisation, and the Horticultural Societies, the Committees of the 



