548 Proceedings. 



Fourth Meeting. 9^/t Seiotemher, 1878, 

 T. Heale, President, in the chair. 

 New Members. — Eev. S. Edgar, E, A. Plumley. 



1. Mr. Robertson made a lengthy defence of his paper, "Education as a Science," 

 read at the last two meetings. 



2. Mr. Heale spoke on Mr. Adams' paper on Female Education, read before the 

 previous meeting. In a boy's education, the training should be almost purely intellectual. 

 It is likely to be necessary for the success in life of every boy that he should be quick 

 and apt at figures, that he should speak and write his own language with reasonable 

 facility and correctness ; and if his education is to be carried beyond mere rudiments 

 it is obviously necessary that he should have a grounding in mathematics, and in the 

 elements of literature, which is necessarily based on classics ; and also, some initiation 

 into the elements of Physical Science. But with girls this sharp limitation of school 

 teaching, to purely intellectual knowledge, has not been adopted. It has apparently been 

 felt that- the development of a moral character, and the cultivation of the esthetic 

 faculties, are generally of more importance to the well-being of a girl than the hardening 

 and' bracing of her reasoning powers ; that elegance of language and demeanour, a nice 

 tact in the avoidance of all that is base and sordid, a quick appreciation of and relish for 

 what is beautiful — in short " accomplishments," even if of a somewhat flimsy and 

 mechanical character,^ — are likely to be more appreciated by those she will associate 

 with in her career, and therefore be more useful to her, than proficiency in classics or 

 mathematics. Nature appears to have clearly assigned to the sexes distinctive mental, 

 quite as much as physical characteristics, to have cast the intellectual powers of men 

 and women not in the same mould, but rather in their counterparts ; to have framed 

 each with qualities imperfect by themselves, and only capable of becoming complete by 

 being supplemented and modified by the opposite ones ; and it follows as a corollary that 

 the facu.lties of each should be cultivated so as to supply the defects of the other — the 

 one perfected in his hard matter of fact, logical and working pursuits — the other in the 

 elegancies of life and literature. 



Mr. Adams explained that he would by no means banish the emotional from a girl's 

 training, but simply give a greater amount of time to the intellectual. 



3. " The New Zealand Anobiidce," by Captain T. Broun. 



According to the author, this group possesses ten representatives in New' Zealand, 

 nine of which had been recently discovered by himself. 



4. "Notes on a Salt Spring near Hokianga," by J. A. Pond. {Trans- 

 actions, p. 512.) 



5. Dr. Purchas then proceeded to exhibit a number of Telephones and Microphones, 

 giving a full account of their construction and mode of action. 



Fifth Meeting. 7th October, 1878. 

 T. Heale, President, in the chair. 

 New Member.- — D. Hearn. 



The Secretary read the list of donations to the Library and Museum since the last 

 meeting. 



