Otctgo Itistitute. 443 



the excellent i-eport of Mr, Vincent Pyke, dated 1st October, 1862, where a 

 very fair and full account has been given of the whole subject. 



My observations and the deductions therefrom were those of a pioneering 

 and exploring surveyor, engaged for the purpose of facilitating the operations 

 of first settlement. Since then momentous events have taken place, the most 

 marked of which was the great gold discovery of Mr. Gabriel Read in June, 

 1861, and which has contributed so much to the promotion of the matei-ial 

 wealth of this part of New Zealand, But how the progress of Otago has 

 affected science is the question that engages this Institute. 



I may mention, in passing, that when Mr. Gabriel Eead was in the act of 

 weighing out to me the gold of his iirst claim, he prophetically remarked that 

 the face of the country would hencefoi'th be changed. And so it has. 

 Enterprise in all pursuits and avocations has been stimulated, and what were 

 then barren wastes have been converted into smiling plains of waving corn, 

 and the valleys in the interior resound with the din of manual and mechanical 

 industry. The Government, by the increase of revenue, was enabled to engage 

 scientific and professional men from abroad in the various departments. 

 First, as being purely scientific, are to be mentioned the observations and 

 explorations by Dr. Hector, F.R.S., so widely spread over all parts of the 

 Pruvince, even to the most inaccessible places ; and which have been since 

 extended to all New Zealand. For Otago this great good was done, that the 

 public had the advantage of the opinions of a scientific man, based on our text- 

 word — actual " observation." They therefore obtained, by one competent 

 mind at work, substantial results that never could be attained to by any 

 number of unregulated, unauthoritative parties, however experienced particular 

 individuals might be. During the few yeai-s that Dr. Hector was with us he 

 not only illustrated the general geology of the Province and made maps of the 

 same, but he also displayed to the public the nature of our mineral resoiirces, 

 their positions and comparative values — including gold, silvei', copper and 

 antimony, coal, lime, useful clays, etc. About the same time Mr. Vincent 

 Pyke was engaged in organizing the Goldfields Department and promoting and 

 recording new discoveries that electrified the public mind, at closely recurring 

 intervals. To his care and supervision is due the Goldfields Map, used as a 

 work of reference to the present day. Messrs. Swyer, Paterson, and Balfour*, 

 civil engineers, were also induced to come to this distant part of the world, 

 and to them is due the initiation of many of our public works in general, 

 railway, and marine engineering respectively. Now the railway system of 

 New Zealand is making rapid strides here, carrying out works of great 

 magnitude and difiiculty, which when completed will promote intercourse 

 between settlements widely separated and at present cut off by steep mountains 

 and rapid rivers. The construotLon of the Oamaru breakwater — the design of 



