82 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



in their own language. His long-continued work as a field naturalist, 

 and especially as a botanist, is exceedingly interesting, seeing that it 

 forms a connecting link that has continued the early spirit of natural 

 history research in New Zealand, that commenced with Banks and 

 Solander, and was continued by Menzies, Lesson, the two Cunninghams, 

 and Sir Joseph Hooker, prior to the arrival of colonists. Thus we still 

 have in my esteemed friend, Mr. Colenso, an active veteran naturalist 

 of what we may call the old school of explorers. It is wonderful to 

 reflect that little more than fifty years ago this European colony was 

 represented by a few fishing hamlets on the seaboard of a country 

 occupied by a considerable native population. To the early explorers, 

 and even down to a much later date, the obstacles that beset their path 

 were very different from those of the present time ; often obstructive 

 Natives, no roads, no steamers, no railways. Had an Association then 

 existed and desired to promote science by giving our visitors an 

 opportunity of visiting the remote parts of the islands, the same 

 excursions which have on this occasion been planned to occupy a few 

 clays, would have occupied as many months, and then be accomplished 

 only with great hardship and difficulty. 1 must ask the young and 

 rising generation of colonial naturalists to bear this in mind when they 

 haye to criticise and add to the work of their predecessors. Such 

 names of early colonists as Bidwill, Sinclair, Monro, Mantell, Travers, 

 and many others should ever be held in esteem as those who, amidst 

 all the arduous trials of early colonisation, never lost sight of their 

 duty towards the advancement of science in New Zealand. I will not 

 attempt to particularise other names from amongst our existing, and, 

 though small in number, very active corps of scientific workers. They 

 are here, or should be, to speak for themselves in the sectional work ; 

 and I have no doubt some of those who did me the great honour of 

 placing me in my present position are secretly congratulating themselves 

 that they have secured for themselves the position of free lances on this 

 occasion. This is now the third annual gathering of this Association, 

 and New Zealand should feel honoured that it has at so early a date in 

 the Association's history been selected to the turn in rotation as the 

 place of meeting among so many divisions of the great colony of 

 Australasia. The two volumes of the Transactions of the Association, 

 already in the hands of members, ai - e quite sufficient to prove that the 

 hopes of its founders— or rather, I may almost say, the founder — 

 Professor Liversidge of Sydney, have been amply fulfilled. The papers 

 read before the different sections, and the addresses delivered, have in 

 my opinion, to a most remarkable extent, embodied information and 

 discussions which were not likely to be produced as the result of any of 

 our local scientific organisations. The authors seemed to have felt it 

 incumbent on them to place their subjects in the environment of 

 Australasia, and rot in relation to the colony they represent. This, I 

 take it, is the first truly effective step towards Federation which has 

 yet been achieved, and I trust that all our members will continue to be 

 imbued with this spirit. Politicians should take this well to heart. 

 Let them continue to aid all efforts that will tend to bring scientific 

 accumulations in these colonies into a common store, so that each may 

 discover for what purpose it has been best adapted by nature, and of 

 payirg proper political respect in fiscal policy to one another, each may 

 prosper to the full extent of its natural advantages. But it is not alone 



