Natural History in Colonisation. 135 
ment, the public, or the members of a private association, to add 
to his emoluments by the fees of lectures and classes, or of such 
other offices or duties as he could undertake without prejudice to the 
objects for which he was brought from home. I see no difficulty in 
securing a suitable person on suitable terms, which must, of course, 
be the subject of private arrangement. I am not sanguine 
enough to suppose that a Provincial Museum will ever become of 
the same real use to the present, as to the rising, generation. To 
the latter, I think it might be made one of your most important 
educational establishments, and therefore it is that I should like 
to see it systematically organized, thoroughly equipped, and firmly 
rooted as a State institution of recognized value; with a view to 
all which I will only be too happy if [ can in any way forward 
its interests at home. 
Geological Survey of Otago. 
The fact that the Government has recently appointed a Provin- 
cial Geologist, who is expected shortly to enter upon his duties 
here, 1s without prejudice in any way to the remarks I have just 
made under the head of Museum. I am quite aware of the circum- 
stance of the appointment having been made; but so far from 
such appointment interfering in any way with the schemes I have 
proposed, it appears to me most opportune, as affording a means 
whereby you may at once commence your Museum, organize its 
machinery, and carry it on, till you can procure a special curator. 
The assistance of so experienced a naturalist as Dr Hector, who 
has distinguished himself by his labours in the Palliser expedition 
across the Rocky Mountains of North America some years ago, 
could not fail to be valuable. I cannot refrain from stating here ~ 
that I think it reflects high credit on Otago that she is the first 
province in New Zealand to have made arrangements for a sys- 
tematic geological survey, a survey which should imply the expen- 
diture, in my opinion, of at least £10,000; that is, including the 
cost of the proper publication of reports, maps, and drawings, which 
publication can only be carried out in Britain, and at necessarily 
great expense. And it seems to me doubly creditable that the sug- 
gestion regarding such a survey was made, and the arrangements 
earried out, considerably prior to the discovery of the gold fields 
of Tuapeka and Waitahuna; so that I presume it was from a 
firm faith in the usefulness of geological science in a practical sense 
that the Provincial Government passed its vote for this survey. I 
am glad to find that other provinces of New Zealand are following in 
your wake in this respect, and I doubt not all will sooner or later 
be encouraged by the results of your Geological Survey to do so. 
I know not how far the suggestion may meet with the approval 
