132 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
THE NEW ZEALAND ‘INSTITUTE: 
So — 
3Y COLEMAN PHILLIPS. 
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In the March number of the NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF 
SCIENCE, Mr. G. M. Thomson criticises the constitution and 
working of the New Zealand Institute. As a journal of science 
is the proper place for such criticism, I venture to reply. Since 
the year 1869 I have watched the working of the Institute, and 
sometimes taken part in its proceedings, and I confess I am 
not so disappointed with it as is Mr. Thomson. 
Mr. Thomson’s paper, I regret to say, is full of mistakes, com- 
mitted, I admit, evidently from want of complete information. 
That gentleman quite overlooks the essential feature of the In- 
stitute, which appears to be this:—That the affiliated societies 
manage their own affairs, and spend their own money. The 
Government gives payments dy results, in so far that it makes a 
grant to relieve the Societies from the expense of printing their 
Transactions. 
This grant of £500 per annum is alone administered by the 
Board of Governors. The Board has nothing whatever to do 
with the other matters mentioned by Mr. Thomson, viz..—The 
Geological Survey, the Meteorological Stations, the Colonial 
Laboratory, the Library, or the Museum, for the simple reason 
that none of these things have been handed over to the Board to 
administer. They are administered by the Colonial Secretary, 
and form a department, the principal sections of which were under 
the management of the present Director, Dr. Hector, before the 
Institute existed. It was evidently contemplated by the framers 
of “The New Zealand Institute Act, 1867,” that the Board 
might administer these things, but the fact remains that it does 
not do so, as it is thought more advisable to allow them to be 
administered by the Colonial Secretary ; the numerous publica- 
tions which the Department has issued in every branch of the 
service proves how well it has worked. 
Moreover, it must, I think, be admitted that the Geological 
Survey of the Colony requires a museum in which to store speci- 
mens. That a Public Laboratory is absolutely requisite for 
analysis of all kinds, such as are constantly asked for and re- 
quired by the Customs Department ve duties, by our police 
magistrates in police cases, and in the matter of adulteration of 
foods, and mineral and soil analysis, as well as toxicological 
(poisons) examinations, will be universally admitted. It has been 
thought expedient to continue these things under the charge 
of the Colonial Secretary, and Mr. Thomson is quite in error in 
supposing that the Board of Governors of the New Zealand Insti- 
tute has anything whatever to do with them. 
The Library of the Institute consists only of exchanges. No . 
money has been voted for a library. 
