PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 1 1 



Also I shall refer to two gentlemen, who, though not in 

 association with us at the time of their decease, were 

 formerly valued members of the Society. 



Mr. Richard Helms was born at Altona, Germany, on 

 December 12th, 1842. He was one of a type, now vanishing, 

 of keen, self-taught, field-naturalists, of which George 

 Masters, John Brazier, and William Petterd were exponents 

 and who did such excellent work in the past generation. 

 The whole range of natural science attracted him; in 

 botany, zoology, geology, and ethnology, he was equally 

 interested and of these his knowledge was encyclopaedic. In 

 the field he was an expert hunter, handy with tricks and 

 traps and having the wisdom of a savage as to where a 

 bird would nest or a beetle burrow. Quite careless of 

 hardships, such as cold, hunger, or fatigue, he would 

 explore alone in the roughest country. He arrived in 

 Australia in 1858, and assisted his cousin in a cigar business 

 in Melbourne. About 1862 he crossed over to New Zealand 

 and spent some time in Dunedin. After another visit to 

 Melbourne he commenced practice in 1876 as a dentist in 

 Nelson, New Zealand. During the late seventies and early 

 eighties he resided at Greymouth; in 1879 he married and 

 engaged in business as a watch-maker. Here he made 

 his first contributions to scientific literature. 1 Becoming 

 interested in the coleoptera, he formed a large collection. 

 Then he added conchology to his studies and maintained 

 an active correspondence on the subject with Oapt. F. W. 

 Hutton. The west coast of the South Island was then 

 zoologically unknown, and as a pioneer Helms was able to 

 add largely to the number of species recorded from New 

 Zealand. His industry may be illustrated by some of the 

 species discovered by, and named after him. Fereday 

 named for him a new butterfly Dodonidia lielmsi. Dr. 



1 Helms, New Zealand Journ. of Science, i, 1883, pp. 466, 516, 



