88 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



evidence of fault movements on a large scale is apparent, and it would 

 be most interesting to ascertain if the remarkable deviation from the 

 normal in direction and force of the magnetic currents, which are 

 experienced in Japan, are also found in New Zealand. For it is 

 evident that if they are in any way related to the strain of cross 

 fractures in the earth's ci'ust, the observation would tend to eliminate 

 the local influence of the volcanic rocks which are present in one case 

 and absent in the other. With reference to earthquakes also, few, if 

 any, but very local shocks experienced in New Zealand have originated 

 from any volcanic focus we are acquainted with, while a westerly 

 propagation of the ordinary vibrations rarely passes the great fault that 

 marks the line of active volcanic disturbance. In Japan, also, out of 

 about 480 shocks which are felt each year in that country, each of 

 which, on average, shakes about one thousand square miles, there are 

 many that cannot be ascribed to volcanic origin. There are many 

 other problems of practical importance that can only be studied from 

 the base line of a properly equipped observatory. These will readily 

 occur to physical students, who are better acquainted with the subject 

 than I am. I can only express the hope that the improved circum- 

 stances of the colony will soon permit some steps to be taken. 

 Already in this city, I understand some funds have been subscribed. 

 As an educational institution, to give practical application to our 

 students in physical science, geodesy, and navigation, it would clearly 

 have a specific value that would greatly benefit the colony. Another 

 great branch of physical science, chemistry, should be of intense 

 interest to colonists in a new country. Much useful work has been 

 done, though not by many workers. The chief application of this 

 science has been naturally to promote the development of mineral 

 wealth, to assist agriculture, and for the regulation of mercantile 

 contracts. I cannot refrain from mentioning the name of William 

 Skey, analyst to the Geological Survey, as the chemist whose researches 

 during the last twenty-eight years have far surpassed any other in 

 New Zealand. Outside his laborious official duties he has found time 

 to make about sixty original contributions to chemical science, such as 

 researches into the electrical properties of metallic sulphides — the 

 discovery of the ferro-nickel alloy awaruite in the ultra-basic rocks of 

 West Otago, which is highly interesting as it is the first recognition of 

 this meteoric-like iron as native to our planet — the discovery that the 

 hydrocarbon in the gas shales is chemically and not merely mechanically 

 combined with the clay base — of a remarkable colour test for the 

 presence of magnesia and the isolation of the poisonous principle in 

 many of our native shrubs. His recent discovery, that the fatty oils 

 treated with aniline form alkaloids, also hints at an important new 

 departure in organic chemistry. His suggestion of the hot-air blow 

 pqie, and of the application of cyanide of potassium to the saving of 

 gold, and many other practical applications of his chemical knowledge, 

 are distinguished services to science, of which New Zealand should be 

 proud. In connection with the subject of chemistry, there is a point of 

 vast importance to the future of the pastoral and agricultural interests 

 of .New Zealand, to which attention was directed some years ago by Mr. 

 Pond, of Auckland. That is the rapid deterioration which the soil 

 must be undergoing by the steady export of the constituents on which 

 plant and animal life must depend for nourishment. He calculated 



