Haast. — On the Early History of the Canterbury Museum. 503 



Akt. LXXVIII. — Origin and Early History of the Canterbury Museum : being 

 the Annual Address. By Professor Julius von Haast, Ph.D., F.E.S., 

 President of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, IQth June, 1881.] 

 Having by your goodwill been called to preside at your meetings, I was 

 unfortunately prevented from delivering the customary address at the 

 appointed time, being then in Melbourne on official business, and since my 

 return I have been so much occupied in despatching the accumulated 

 arrears that I am only to-day enabled to address you and to congratulate 

 you on the advance our Society has made, and on its healthy condition and 

 prospects. We have, it is true, passed through trying times since its 

 foundation in 1862, and such times may come again ; however, I am sure 

 that the devotion of those members who have the advancement of science 

 and the triumph of truth at heart, will steer our barque with steady hand 

 over the troubled waters, and gain and retain for our institution such 

 a position that those of us who stood at its cradle have all cause to be 

 proud of its achievements. Instead of offering you a review of the results 

 of research in the various branches of science, I have, in my few last 

 addresses, taken the liberty to devote the time at my command to one or 

 two subjects, then uppermost in my mind, and which I thought might be of 

 interest to you. 



In this year's address, with your permission, I wish to speak to you of 

 another institution, at the cradle of which I stood also, like a number of 

 our older members, whose hearty co-operation I enjoyed, and by whose 

 powerful help that institution has grown from a small beginning to con- 

 siderable dimensions. My subject this evening will therefore be " The 

 Origin and Early Progress of the Canterbury Museum," in the course of 

 which I wish to bring before you some facts concerning its infant days, and 

 to preserve some recollections, which now, still fresh in our memory, will, 

 in after years, when that institution has become still more fully a deposi- 

 tory of all that is valuable and instructive in science, art, and industry, be 

 of great interest to our successors. And as the Philosophical Institute, as 

 soon as the Canterbury Museum wanted assistance, both intellectual and 

 material, has never refused to afford it that aid which, especially at the 

 commencement, was of the highest importance, when we had hard struggles 

 for its very existence, it is a very grateful task for me to recognize this 

 publicly, and to thank most warmly once more the members for their inte- 

 rest and help. Moreover, I beheve that under these circumstances no 

 better opportunity than to lay these notes before you to-night could be 



