504 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



selected. It is scarcely necessary for me to point out to you of what great 

 importance, principally in a newly-inliabited country, a public museum is ; 

 how many invisible influences it exercises in almost every direction ; how 

 thought, observation and research are incited by its existence ; how, in a 

 pleasant way, youth and age alike gain knowledge ; and how, in one word, 

 the intellectual and material welfare of the province have been promoted in 

 many ways by its help. Similar thoughts were doubtless passing through 

 the mind of Mr. William Sefton Moorhouse, Superintendent of the Pro- 

 vince, when in December, 1860, at the request of that able statesman, I 

 came to Christchuroh to fill the post of Provincial Geologist, the first 

 appointment of that kind made in the Colony of New Zealand. Having 

 before my arrival in Christchurch been travelling over and examining 

 several parts of the colony, I brought with me seven cases of specimens, 

 mostly geological, rocks, minerals, ores and fossils, together with a herba- 

 rium. These formed the first nucleus of the Canterbury Museum, many of 

 them being still exhibited in their proper places. 



The office of the Geological Survey was then situated in the north- 

 eastern side qf the Government Buildings, on the first floor, consisting of 

 the high tower room, my office, and inner low room, in which, on long 

 tables, the collections as they gradually increased were placed. 



The specimens brought by me from my former journeys to Canterbury 

 consisted of : — 



220 rocks, minerals, ores and fossils from the Province of Auckland. 



15 rocks from the Province of Taranaki. 

 235 rocks, minerals, ores and fossils from the Province of Nelson. 



470 specimens in all. 



From my first journeys in Canterbury to the head-waters of the Kangi- 

 tata, the Malvern Hills, and the head-waters of the Waitaki, such large 

 collections were brought, that already in 1863, 742 specimens of rocks, ores, 

 and minerals, and 620 fossils, had been added to the collections belonging 

 to the Province. 



Amongst other collections, 182 specimens of New Zealand shells had 

 already been added. In 1862, at my suggestion, the Provincial Council 

 voted £100 for the purchase of type collections in mineralogy, lithology, 

 palaeontology, and conchology, which were obtained from the Mineralien 

 Comptoir, in Heidelberg, Germany, under very favourable conditions. It 

 contained 2,613 well-selected specimens, many of them of permanent value. 

 About the same time Professor Ferdinand von Hochstetter, who throughout 

 the whole existence of the Museum from its very beginning has been its 

 warm friend and supporter, sent a collection of German fossils, ores and 



