SO^.^3/ 

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PREFACE 



The avrangement of the third vohime of the Transactions has been altered from 

 that adopted in either of the preceding volumes, in order to meet a generally 

 expressed wish that the Proceedings should be issued in anticipation of the 

 main body of the work, the publication of which is necessarily delayed on 

 account of the ilkistrations. The Proceedings of the Societies were there- 

 fore printed in a separate form, and published in July and January last. 



The quantity of matter contributed for publication being greatly in 

 excess of that in any former year, the Governors have been reluctantly 

 compelled to order the abridgment, in some cases, of papers of interest, 

 and to postpone the publication of the following : — " On the Mechanics and 

 Mechanical Economy of Railways," by G-. M. Barr ; " On Economical Rail- 

 ways and Rolling Stock," and " On the Power requii'ed for Working Flax 

 Machines," by James Stewart, C.E. ; "On Co-operation, as regards the 

 Union of Capital and Labour," by Stuart Hawthorne ; " ISTotes on Mr. 

 Hawthorne's Paper on Co-operation," by Robert Stout ; " On the Sailing 

 Flight of the Albatros ; a Reply to J. S.- Webb," by Capt. Hiitton, F.G.S.; 

 " On the Adaptation of India-rubber Tires to Wooden Tramways," by 

 J. C. Crawford, F.G.S. ; "On the Analysis of the Registry of Mortality in 

 the Christchurch District the last ten years," by LI. Powell, M.R.C.S. St.A. j 

 " On the Best Means of Diffusing, and Promoting Higher Education in 

 this Colony," by Frank C. Simmons, M.A., Head Master of Nelson College ; 

 " On the Botany of Tahiti;" "Ethnographical Considerations on the Whence 

 of the Maori," by J. T. Thomson, F.R.G.S. 



The three Papers first mentioned, being of a pi-actical and technical 

 character, will j^robably be published with other Official Reports on the same 

 subjects, while the others, with one exception, were selected for postponement 

 on account of their being either of a controvex'sial character, or because they 

 have been already published at length in public prints. With regard, 

 however, to Mr. Thomson's elaborate Ethnographical Paper on the " Origin 

 of the Maori Race," it is necessary to state that the manuscript copy 

 was not received until April, when the volume was almost ready for 

 publication, and as this Essay requires many illustrations it could not be" 

 inserted ^vithout delaying the issue of the volume beyond the period at 

 which Members expect its distribution. 



