NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE. 



General Meeting. ^Oth Sej)temher, 1873. 



His Excellencj the Rt. Hon. Sir James Fergusson, Bart., President, 



in the chair. 



FIFTH ANNUAL EEPOET BY THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS. 



Five years have now elapsed since the foundation of the New Zealand 

 Institute, and this being the fii-st occasion of a change of its official President, 

 it affords an opportunity for a brief retrospect of the results which have been 

 achieved through its instrumentality. 



The chief object of the Act under which the Institute was incorporated 

 was to promote the formation of societies in different parts of the colony for 

 the collection and discussion of original observations concerning its natural 

 history and resources. It was obvious that the geographical circumstances of 

 the colony prevented the formation of any strong central society capable of 

 stimulating and directing such investigations by frequent meetings of its 

 members, as in other colonies that possess a chief centre of population, in which 

 all social institutions become naturally concentrated. The constitution of the 

 New Zealand Institute furnishes, therefore, a means of combining the effoi'ts of 

 provincial societies, at the same time relieving them of the great expense 

 which they would have to incur in publishing their Transactions in an 

 independent form. Experience elsewhere has shown that, in new countries 

 especially, the funds of such societies are inadequate for the proper production 

 of their Transactions, from the fact that the number of their members is few 

 and the field for original observation is large, so that in a few years such 

 societies are liable to decay, after accumulating much material that would be, 

 if published, of great assistance in advancing our knowledge of the country. 



Each scientific society in New Zealand that becomes affiliated to the 

 Institute receives a share of an annual parliamentary grant, in proportion to 

 the amount of work which is performed by its members, and the result is the 

 pr-oduction of a volume of Transactions and Proceedings that carries more 

 authority, and does more credit to the colony, than could be derived froin the 

 publication of a number of detached pamp>hlets. 



The form of constitution thus indicated has already evoked favoui^able 

 expressions of opinion in some of the leading scientific journals of the old 

 country, and it has even been seriously proposed that a similar institution 

 should be established for consolidating the woik of the difl'erent scientific 

 societies scattered throughout Great Biitain. 



Although there is still much room for Iui[)roveuient, a comparison of the 



