442 Proceedings. 



addition to our buildings, and a great increase in our annual income, must be provided, 

 before we can carry out our wishes to any considerable extent. The same remarks are ap- 

 plicable to all other parts of our work, either in actual progress, or in contemplation. 

 We are cramped in every direction by the want of money. 



In the department of geology, we have a large number of valuable rock specimens, 

 including a typical collection specially obtained from England, which cannot be exhibited 

 in the Museum for want of suitable table-cases. In Zoology there are many interesting 

 and beautiful skins of birds and other animals packed away out of sight, because we have 

 not the means to employ a taxidermist to set them up. We have no classes in any branch 

 of science, not because there are no persons desirous to learn, but because we have not the 

 means and apphances necessary to carry on the work of instruction. We have no labora- 

 tory, no apparatus, no suitable theatre for lectures, and no funds to provide these neces- 

 sary things. 



We hope that a beginning may be made ere long by the opening of a class for the 

 study of botany, which has the advantage of being able to dispense with costly apparatus. 

 In fact, such a class might be formed at any time under the care of our worthy secretary, 

 Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., if a moderate number of pupils would agree to meet to- 

 gether, say once a week, for this useful and interesting study. 



In the department of art a good beginning has already been made. The splendid 

 casts of world-renowned antique statues which now, thanks to Mr. Thomas Kussell, 

 C.M.G., adorn our museum and excite the admiration of niunerous visitors, are silent 

 instructors of all who study them with open eyes ; while special instruction is freely pro- 

 vided for those who, having the necessary natural gifts, desire to cultivate the limner's 

 art. The classes established by the kindly thoughtfulness and liberality of our friend Dr. 

 Campbell, under the charge of Mr. Kennett Watkin, are in full work, and making fair 

 progress. The number of students of both sexes at present on the list is, I beheve, 31. 



I have thus endeavoured to point out the actual present condition of our Institute, 

 and the desiderata yet to be supplied before we can fully achieve the purpose for which 

 we have associated ourselves. The question. How are we to obtain the necessary means ? 

 is one which I am not able fully to answer. There are but two sources to which we can 

 look, public grants and private munificence. Both of these have helped us in the past ; 

 to both must we look in the future ; nor do I think that we shall be disappointed. Of 

 private generosity we have already had noble instances, and we will not doubt that others 

 as noble are yet to come. Nor will we believe that our statesmen will withhold due 

 assistance from the public funds, when they consider the importance of the cultivation of 

 science, literature, and art, to the welfare of the people whose funds they administer. It 

 is true that elementary instruction must ever occupy the first place in the liberal states- 

 man's thoughts. The key of knowledge should be put into the hands of all. But when 

 we refer to schools of a higher class than the primary, it is impossible to ignore the 

 claims of science to be included in the curriculum of instruction. Some eminent 

 men contend that all children should be taught the elements of science. The 

 German scientist Haeckel claims that the Darwinian theory of evolution should 

 be made the basis on which State education should rest, but in this he is 

 strongly opposed by his friend and former teacher Kirchow, The latter has, I think, 

 clearly shown that Haeckel has taken up untenable ground. All will agree that truth 

 is the one object of real scientific research, but there is need of caution lest we lose 

 sight of the distinction between the certain knowledge of ascertained facts, which is 

 rightly called science, and the exercise of the scientific imagination in hypothetical 



