MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 357 
models of cultivation of tobacco, oranges, bananas, sugar plants, 
&c., could be acquired, the author thinks, would be “of vastly 
greater public importance than the Agricultural School in Can- 
terbury for instance. For, with our wealth of fertile land, and 
the low prices ruling for cereals, high-class scientific farming 
will hardly prove remunerative for some generations to come, 
and we have already in large parts of the Colony great numbers 
of farms, in which a fairly successful and scientific system of 
agriculture is practised, at which young men desirous of gaining 
a sound practical knowledge of farming have ample opportuni- 
ties of learning their craft without expense to the community. 
A scientific agricultural school is, in our circumstances, a use- 
less and unnecessary burden on the revenues of the Colony. 
But the proposed farms for the culture of sub-tropical products 
stand on a wholly different footing. They could at once help 
to enlarge our resources, and impart knowledge of great prac- 
tical utility to persons who have at present no means of gaining 
it. The scheme would, moreover, be a drain on the Colony 
for two or three generations only. For as the industries to be en- 
couraged took root and spread, the public fostering of them 
would become unnecessary, as ample facilities for getting an 
acquaintance with their direction and operations would be 
afforded by private.cultivators.” 
After touching on the encouragement of our fisheries, the 
author continues :—“ The last duty I shall find time to notice is 
the promotion of the systematic working out of our native 
fauna and flora. In past years the Government has given 
generous support to this work, and among our public men Sir 
George Grey has been conspicuous for his exertions in the cause 
of biological science. A good many years ago the Government 
secured the services of Sir Joseph Hooker for the systematic 
description of the flora of New Zealand, and the result of his 
labours is the well-known Handbook of that eminent botanist. 
This work was completed twenty years ago, and is now out of 
print. Since it was written, a great many new species have been 
discovered and described, and sufficient material has been col- 
lected, chiefly by private workers, to allow of an accurate 
revision of many difficult genera already very imperfectly de- 
scribed, owing to the meagre collections and indifferent specimens 
placed at Dr. Hooker’s disposal. The time has therefore now 
arrived when an accurate and fairly exhaustive account of the 
flowering plants and higher cryptogams of these islands can be 
made out, and the friends of scicnce look with confidence to the 
Government for an early vote for this purpose. The work is 
urgently required ; for not only is the Handbook out of print, 
but the student of our flora requires in addition to it ready 
access to the sixteen volumes of the Transactions of the New 
Zealand Institute, in which a very large number of additional 
species is described. Under these circumstances only persons 
who live near a good reference or scientific library, or have been 
members of the New Zealand Institute from its inception, can 
