AUCKLAND INSTITUTE 



First Meeting. ISth June, 1881, 

 T. Peacock, President, in the chair. 

 New Members. — C. Alexander, J. M. Alexander, A. Buckland, H. Camp- 

 bell, M. A. Clark, W. C. Coleman, P. Comisky, J. Fisher, T. T. Gamble, 

 D. Goldie, G. Johnstone, G. Hemus, T. W. Hickson, T. Mahoney, A. 

 McGregor, T. Mackay, D. Nathan, E. B. Parsons, A. Saunders, G. Sibbin, 

 J. C. Sharland, E. H. Stevenson, E. H. Whitaker, W. E. Waddel, Major 

 T. Benton, N. Kenny, G. T. Wilkinson, T. P. Moody. 

 The President then delivered the anniversary address. 



ABSTEACT. 



In accordance with the usual custom, it now becomes my duty to deliver the inaugural 

 address. In the first place, I desire to express my ajDpreciation of the honour which the 

 members of the Institute have conferred upon me in electing me to fill the President's 

 chair — an honour to which my own feelings would not have prompted me to aspire. 

 Standing on the threshold of our fourteenth session, and looking back to the meeting in 

 November, 1867, at which, with zealous intentions, not unmingied with misgiving as to 

 its permanence, our society was launched, I feel that there is true cause for congratulation 

 at the progress made and the success achieved. And looking forward, there is every 

 reason for encouragement. With a membership numbering 305 — the largest roll of any 

 of the affiliated societies— including 28 names just added, we have the evidence of a 

 sustained interest in our important operations. Having been associated with the Institute 

 as a member of council at its beginning, I know that much of the success has been owing 

 to the fostering care and ever willing assistance rendered by Mr. Kirk and Professor 

 Hutton in the early years of our existence. 



Our aims embrace the cultivation of science, art, literature, and philosophy, a range 

 of subjects which gives ample scope for the indulgence of every taste, while our meetings 

 afford a congenial sphere where each votary can minister to the pleasure and edification 

 of his fellows, receiving in return an impulse to fresh exertion, whether it be to study, to 

 assimilate, and profit by the wealth of thought, feeling, and wisdom, treasured up in our 

 national literature ; or in the field of Nature, animate and inanimate, to observe and 

 classify her phenomena, and evolve the laws that regulate her processes, 



" With ciuioiTS eye 



To glance at beauteous things that give delight : 

 Objects of earth or air, or sea or sky, 



That bring the very senses in the sight 

 To relish what they see." 



SCIENCE. 



But granting that art, literature, and philosophy are wisely included in the aims of 

 the Institute, and well deserving of attention and encouragement, science must naturally 

 occupy a prominent place in our deliberations. During the present century alone it has 



