14 Neiv Zealand Institute. 



Behind us lies a niglit o£ fearful gloom, unillumined by tie light of written 

 records, of picture memorials, of auglit wMch can give a certain idea of the 

 past. A few stray streaks of light, in the form of tradition, of oral poetry, 

 of carved records, are the only guides we have. And, in the gloom of that 

 night, are fast fading out of view, although dim outlines of them are still 

 visible, some of the most fearful spectres which have ever stalked amongst 

 mankind in the hideous shapes of idolatry, human sacrifice, and cannibalism, 

 mixed up with which, in uncouth unison, is much of real poetry and of 

 actual grace of fancy. Euture generations will almost doubt that such 

 gloomy forms of thought have haunted their highly cultivated and civilized 

 homes, or that a people debased by such barbarities could yet have felt 

 and cherished so much of the poetic and good ; and if they could then 

 question us who have seen these now fading superstitions ere they wholly 

 vanished, what eager questions they would propose to us regarding their 

 monstrous shapes, their horrid aspect, the rude and inharmonious voices with 

 which, with horrid shouts and yells, their orgies were fulfilled ! How eagerly 

 the poet, the painter, the sculptor, would seek to recover some traits of their 

 terrible lineaments, or of their softer outlines when they related to scenes 

 of the gentler passions or of domestic life ! — that either a stern grandeur or 

 the romantic glow of a primitive state of existence might be imparted to 

 some vv^ork of art." 



To these graphic and striking words I will only add that no problem of 

 ethnology, no question of political economy (in its best and most practical 

 sense), can be regarded as alien to us Britons, who, throughout our vast 

 Empire, are brought into contact with so many and such diverse nations. 

 The noble exhortation addressed to the Eomans of old by their greatest 

 poet is, in its spirit, equally applicable to our own Imperial race, which now 

 rules those Indian realms that baffled the arms of Alexander, and is fast 

 peopling and replenishing that Australasia, or " G-reat Southern Land," 

 which lay beyond the charts of Nearchus and Strabo, of Marco Polo and 

 Columbus : — 



Excudent alii spirantia mollius tera, 



Credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmorc vultus ; 



Orabunt causas melius, coelique meatus 



Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent ; 



Tu regere imperio populos, Eomane, memento ; 



Hse tibi erunt artes.* 



If I did not feel that I had already trespassed too long on your attention, 

 I would, in conclusion, urge the expediency of the encouragement, in some 

 departments of the colleges and schools in this ncAV land, of that technical 

 and scientific education which is now year by year asserting a higher place 



* Virgil, ^n. VI., 848-853. 



