46 PEOCEEDI^'GS or the geological society. 



lieport on the province was published in 1861. In the j^ear 1860, 

 a similar offer was made to him by the Government of Canterbury, 

 and in the following year he commenced that important Geological 

 Survey of the Province of Canterbury with which, in the future, 

 his name will always be identified. 



In 1863 Dr. Haast was elected a Pellow of our Society, and 

 shortly afterwards we find him communicating to our publications 

 the first of his valuable memoirs on the geology of ]^ew Zealand, 

 with especial reference to the glacial phenomena of the country. 

 He visited the great glaciers of the Xew-Zealand Alps, and was led 

 to propound a theory of the mode in which lake-basins might have 

 been excavated, as a consequence of the resistance offered to the 

 advancing glaciers by their terminal moraines. He at the same 

 time offered a strong and much needed protest against the view 

 that the extension of glaciers necessarily involves a universal lower- 

 ing of the temperature, enforcing his views on this subject by 

 pointing to the interesting discovery he had made of the bones of 

 Dinornis and Palapteryx, imbedded in the materials of terminal 

 moraines. 



Dr. Haast took much interest in all questions connected with 

 the ancient birds of N'ew Zealand ; he x^^^^lished a number of 

 papers on the subject, and it was through the exchanges which he 

 arranged that the bones of the Dinornis found their way into all 

 the chief museums of Europe. In 1867 the importance and value 

 of his scientific labours were recognized by his election as a Fellow 

 of the Eoyal Society. 



The last twenty years of Dr. Haast's life were devoted to the 

 completion of the maps and memoir illustrating the geology of 

 Canterbury and the gold-bearing district of Westland, and in efforts 

 to render the museum of Christchurch as complete as was possible. 

 He used to declare it to be his highest desire to render this the 

 finest museum in the southern hemisphere, and he certainly spared 

 neither labour nor pains in seeking to attain the object of his 

 ambition. 



During the Colonial Exhibition of last year, von Haast was pre- 

 sent in England, taking charge of the important exhibits sent by the 

 ISFew-Zealand Government ; and on that occasion many of us had an 

 opportunity of becoming acquainted with him and knowing how 

 great was his devotion to scientific investigation. In connexion 

 with the exhibition, von Haast laboured so unremittingly as to 

 overtax his strength, and for the services he rendered he received 



