AUCKLAND INSTITUTE 



First Meeting. 28^7t Mmj, 1877. 



E. C. Barstow, President, in the cliair. 



New Members. — E. Cameron, P. Dignan, M.H.E,, J. H. Greenway, 

 S. E. Hughes, J. Symons, J. L. Tole, E. K. Tyler. 



The President then delivered the following anniversary 



ADDRESS. 

 In the first place I must thank you for the houour which you have conferred upon me 

 in electing me as your President for the current year. I am afraid that a Society insti- 

 tuted for the advancement of Axi, Science, and Literature, has not shown itself artful by 

 such choice. Eegretting, both for your sakes and my own, that I possess no scientific 

 attainments, have no literary tastes, and am devoted to no art, I can only promise that 

 by industry and attention to the objects of the Museum and Institute I will endeavour 

 to remedy these serious deficiencies. The means laid down by the rules of our Society 

 for the attainment of its ends, are a Museum, a Library, Lectures, and Meetings of 

 Members. I look upon the first in order of these as the most important, because the 

 most direct ; the impression on the brain is naore positive, more accurate, more indelible 

 when conveyed by ocuhxr inspection of a substance itself than by jserusal of a written 

 description of it, or than by listening to a lecture upon it ; besides the visvial conception 

 is the speediest mode of acquiring comiDrehension, — take, as an example, a siDecimen of a 

 stuffed bird, jow look at it, and in an instant you acquire a knowledge of the size, 

 colours, and partly of the habits of the living bird, — turn to a book on ornithology, you 

 find the height, a description of the colours, wings, tails, claws, and other i^articulars, 

 which you must put together for yourself, and then trust your imagination for the 

 appearance of the bird, unless there is a plate to help you ; and even should there be 

 one, only compare the picture with the reality, and you will be struck with the advantage 

 possessed by the actuality over the best possible resemblance. So, too, more especially 

 of minerals, a look, a handling, and how much more you feel to know about them, than 

 by a geological exegesis ; not that I am despising this latter, but only extolling the 

 former modes. Look at machinery ; how long would it take most of us to comprehend 

 the working, say, of a locomotive engine by studying a mere written account, or listening 

 to a descriptive discourse, even from the most accomplished of engineers ! True, accom- 

 panying drawings may assist you, and render that intelligible which otherwise would be 

 altogether beyond your powers, but how much more facile it appears when, examining for 

 yourself the complicated api^aratus, you trace the suj^ply of water and coal, the genera- 

 tion of steam, the manner in which its power is controlled and directed, the multitude 

 of appliances by which the engineer regulates the speed and motion of his mighty 

 monster, and renders it subservient to his will, and although pure science must be 

 allotted to library or lectures, in most of its branches illustrations by experimental 

 apparatus are necessary to exemplify the various processes involved. 



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