AUSTEALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 8$ 



in the value of the papers communicated that the Association contributes 

 to advance true civilisation in the colonies. The face to face conference, 

 the personal cont ict of the active workers in different lines of scientific 

 work, must greatly facilitate the more thorough understanding of the 

 work which has been done and which is still undone. A vague idea, 

 simmering in the brain of one scientist who thinks light of it because 

 it has no special application in his particular environment, may, by 

 personal converse, flash into important results in the mind of another 

 who has had the difficulties facing him, but without the happy thought 

 occurring. It would be rather interesting for someone with leisure to 

 endeavour to recount how many great discoveries have eventuated in 

 this manner. In casting my thoughts for a particular subject on which 

 to address the Association I felt perplexed. Presidents of similar 

 Associations in the Old World, who are in constant contact with the 

 actual progress in scientific thought, feel that a mere recital of the 

 achievements during their previous term is sufficient to command 

 interest ; but in the colonies most of us are cut off from personal 

 converse with the leading minds by whom the scientific afflatus is 

 communicated ; and in our suspense for the tardy anival of the official 

 publications of the societies, we have to feed our minds with science 

 from periodical literature. But even in this respect my own current 

 education is very defective, as I reside in the capital city of New 

 Zealand, which has no college with a professional staff whose duty, 

 pleasure and interest it is to maintain themselves on a level with the 

 different branches of knowledge they represent. I therefore decided 

 that instead of endeavouring to review what had been done in the way 

 of scientific progress, even in Australasia, it would be better to confine 

 my remarks to New Zealand — the more so that this is the first occasion 

 that there has been a gathering of what must, to some extent, be 

 considered to be an outside audience for the colony. To endeavour to 

 describe, even briefly, the progress made in the science of a new country 

 is, however, almost like writing its minute history. Every step in its 

 reclamation from a wild state of nature has depended on the application 

 of scientific knowledge, and the reason for the rapid advance in these 

 colonies is chiefly to be attributed to their having had the advantage of 

 all modern resources to hand. As in most other matters in New 

 Zealand there is a sharp line dividing the progress into two distinct 

 periods, the first before and the second after the formation of the colony 

 in 1840. With reference to the former perio I it is not requisite that 

 much should be said on this occasion. From the time of Captain 

 Cook's voyages, owing to his attractive narrative, New Zealand acquired 

 intense interest for naturalists. His descriptions of the country and its 

 productions, seeing that he only gathered them from a few places 

 where he landed on the coast, are singularly accurate. But I think 

 rather too much is sometimes endeavoured to be proved from the 

 negative evidence of his not having observed certain objects. As an 

 instance, it has been asserted that if any of the many forms of the moa 

 still survived, Captain Cook must have been informed of the fact. Yet 

 we find that he lay for weeks in Queen Charlotte Sound and in Dusky 

 Sound, where all night long the cry of the kiwi must have been heard 

 just as now, and that he also obtained and took Home mats and other 

 articles of Native manufacture, trimmed with kiwi's skins; and that 

 most likely the mouse-coloured quadruped which was seen at Dusky 



