Vol. L, No. 4, N.Z. JOUKNAL OF SCIENCE (New Issue) JULY 891 



THE PARLIAMENT OF NEW ZEALAND IN ITS 

 RELATIONS TO SCIENCE. 



The columns of a scientific publication do not constitute a suitable 

 place in which to discuss questions of politics, and it is therefore from 

 no political stand point that we propose to look at the subject of the 

 probable views of the present parliament of New Zealand on matters of 

 scientific interest. Of late years the tendency has been towards a 

 steady retrogression in the educational status of our House of Repre- 

 sentatives. The men elected to represent the people at the seat of 

 government may be as able and as earnest as their predecessors ever 

 were, but their educational calibre is decidedly lower than it used to be 

 ten or twenty years ago. In this respect the present House has 

 probably reached a lower depth than any of those which preceded it. 

 The men elected by most of the urban constituencies cannot, and we 

 believe do not lay claim to belong to the best educated portion of the 

 community, and hence the bearing of the present House towards 

 scientific questions will be watched with interest and considerable 

 anxiety. New Zealand has in the past achieved a very high reputation 

 outside of its own narrow borders for the enlightened policy which its 

 successive governments have pursued in matters scientific. Its survey 

 department has always been presided over by men of high standing in 

 their profession, whose efforts to do high-class work have been 

 repeatedly recognized. The geological survey has since its inception 

 been under the distinguished management of Sir James Hector, who, 

 with the aid of able assistants, has year by year added to the know- 

 ledge of the geological history of the colony, until it may well be 

 questioned whether any part of the world has been so well worked out 

 within such a short period and with such small means. We may 

 probably rest assured that the present House will not do anything to 

 cripple either of these branches of the service, because the practical 

 value of their work commends itself even to the non-scientific mind. 

 Indeed this is the only aspect in which scientific work is apt to be 

 regarded by the 6i polloi, and it is as the outcome of this utilitarian way 

 of looking at things that we anticipate any trouble or difficulty is likely 

 to occur. 



Attention has already been, drawn towards such a sweeping reduc- 

 tion in the staff of the Colonial Museum in Wellington that the best 

 thing that could now be done would be to shut it up altogether. For 

 years there has been a growing tendency to starve this institution, and 

 now we believe that there is actually no one left in chai - ge beyond a 

 mere caretaker. Sir James Hector's work covers a large field, Mr. 

 Skey, who has so long acted as Colonial Analyst, always has his hands 

 full of work, and Mr. Gore must have an amount of clerical work to get 

 through which would satisfy even the Minister of Lands. But there is 

 no one left to receive and properly preserve perishable specimens which 

 may be left at the Museum, no taxidermist or articulator to set up the 



