244 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
Nile. In Greece the same metamorphosis was in progress. Rome, too, 
was being elevated from its ruins. We in New Zealand were not 
behindhand, the speaker declared, but were engaged in the heroic work 
described by Lord Bacon — we were here to lay the basis of a true 
civilization ; not only to subdue nature and till the soil, but, impelled 
by Anglo-Saxon ardour and energy, to develop all that was worthy of 
development. 
The first volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 
appeared in May, 1869. In the preface is a list of thirty-one subjects 
which the Editor suggested should be dealt with by the various incorporated 
societies. Most of these subjects are strictly utilitarian— e.g., fisheries, 
best localities and seasons for fishing ; habits of animals, especially of 
those destructive to trees and cultivated plants ; plants suitable for live 
fences in this country ; experiments in the improved breeding of stock ; 
plans and descriptions of mines ; harbour improvements ; proposed lines 
of railway ; machines and processes for washing sheep ; adulteration of 
food. It rather looks as if the Manager were attempting to camouflage 
the public ; even meteorological phenomena has the word “ extraordinary ” 
before it, while plants or animals to be of interest must be “ rare.” There 
is hardly a mention of those subjects which have filled most of the fifty 
volumes ! 
In the year 1903 Sir Janies Hector resigned the Directorship of the 
Museum and the Geological Survey, and with these the position of Manager 
of the Institute. For a number of years the members of the incorporated 
societies had been dissatisfied with their scanty representation on the 
Board of Governors and their right of nomination only. Consequently the 
retirement of Hector gave a chance for the Institute to be reconstructed. 
The matter was taken up, in the first place, by the Philosophical Institute 
of Canterbury, which, supported by the other societies, succeeded in 
getting a new Act passed in 1903 by which the major societies each 
elected two Governors and the minor societies each one Governor. Thus 
at the present time the nine affiliated societies are represented by thirteen 
members, there are two ex officio members (His Excellency the Governor- 
General and the Hon. the Minister of Internal Affairs), and there are four 
members nominated by the Government. Instead of there being a permanent 
Manager, the Governors must elect a President, who need not of necessity 
be one of themselves. The above and other regulations which need not 
be detailed put the New Zealand Institute on an entirely new footing. 
No longer was the policy to be directed entirely from Wellington ; no 
longer was the supreme power to be in the hands of one alone—no matter 
how capable—but the whole Dominion could take a hand ; in short, from 
autocratic the Institute became democratic. 
The first President of the reconstructed Institute was the late Captain 
F. W. Hutton, F.R.S. What he has done for New Zealand science need 
not be told to a Christchurch audience. He was succeeded by the late 
Sir James Hector, F.R.S., a fitting compliment to one who had virtually 
founded the Institute, raised it to a proud position amongst the learned 
societies of the world, and gained an honoured name amongst the scientific 
men of the last century. Next came the Hon. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S., 
whose connection with the Institute dates from 1872. He has published 
many excellent papers, both zoological and botanical, one of the latter, 
dealing with the pollination of New Zealand plants, being a classic. 
Further, above all, in season and out of season has Mr. Thomson striven 
