446 Proceedings. 



our social convulsions. Assuredly, I am one of those who desire, I will not say 

 with sincerity, for the word is too feeble, but who desire with inexpressible ardour, 

 and by all means possible, to ameliorate the lot of all who suffer ; but the first of 

 all amelioration is to give them hope. How greatly lessened are our finite sufferings when 

 there shines into the midst of them an infinite hope ! The duty of us all, whoever we 

 may be, legislators and bishops, priests, authors, and journalists, is to spread abroad, to 

 dispense and to lavish in every form the social energy necessary to combat poverty and 

 suffering, and at the same time to bid every face to be lifted up to Heaven, to direct every 

 soul and mind to a future life, where justice shall be executed. We must declare with a 

 loud voice that none shall have suffered uselessly, and that justice shall be rendered to all. 

 Death itself shall be restitution. As the law of the material universe is equilibrium, so 

 the law of the moral universe is equity. God will be found at the end of all." 



1. " Notes on a Disease among Sheep in tlie Waikato District," by Major 

 W. G. Mair. 



In mid-summer, 1877-8, sheep in Upper Waikato were affected by a disease 

 liitherto unknown to sheep-breeders in the district. The symptoms were 

 described as being not unHke those caused by eating ergotized grass, viz., 

 throwing up the head, jerking it suddenly to one side, then staggering back 

 and falling. These symptoms suggested an affection of the brain, and upon 

 some of the sheep being killed for examination, one or more maggots were, 

 in every instance, found apparently eating through the substance of the 

 brain ; in some cases smaller maggots were found in the nasal passages, in- 

 dicating that it was by the nostril that the parasite found its way into the 

 sheep's head ! In one instance, an unusually large maggot was found 

 under the base of the tongue. I could not ascertain whether any sheep had 

 died from this disease, and many well-conditioned animals were found, upon 

 being slaughtered, to be infested by these parasites. The maggots are in 

 some instances fully three-quarters of an inch in length by half an inch in 

 breadth ; the colour is a du-ty white, with two triangular black spots at the 

 nether extremity. ■ . 



When placed upon a smooth surface they travel with a brisk undulating 

 motion like that of the caterpillar, and they are very retentive of life, being 

 quite lively after three days' imprisonment in a match-box. I have no idea 

 what the perfect insect may be like, but there was a fly common about 

 sheep yards at the time when these observations were made, and as it 

 appears to be new, it is possible that it may be the one which deposits the 

 maggots, either in the sheeps' nostrils, or in their food. 



I am indebted to Messrs. Kirk and Connell, of the Armed Constabulary, 

 for the greater part of my information. 



Several members pointed out that the disease described by the author was due to the 

 CEstrus, or Gad-fly, which appears to be increasing in numbers in New Zealand. 



2. " On the Occurrence of the Genus SporadaMhus in New Zealand," by 

 T. P. Cheesman, F.L.S. {Transactions, p. 324.) 



