honoured Secretary that in his long experience he has rarely known it otherwise, yet that as the session went on members rose to the occasion, and papers were prepared and read as the opportunity arose. Individually I should be glad to see a wider interest taken in this Society, and a correspondingly-increased number of members. The title “Philosophical Society” is so very comprehensive that no kind of wisdom is excluded. Any expert, for instance, who could give true information on such subjects as the following—and I am convinced there are many such in the District of Wellington—would be doing patriotic service by joining the Society and contributing a paper: Wool, and woollen manufacture; freezing-machinery, frozen meat, and heat-insulation; timber and forestry; grass seeds suited to different soils and situations; vine-culture, and wine- and raisin-making; apple orchards, apple-preserving, and cider-making; butter and cheese; fowls and eggs; fish-drying and -preserving, and oyster-culture; paints and pigments; horticulture; boat- and ship-building; architecture with reference to earthquakes and fires. These are subjects which are of interest to the community generally, and good papers on which would be very valuable. The list is very far from being exhaustive, and there are very many other subjects of a somewhat similar character which might be treated on with great advantage. What I wish to emphasize is that this Society does not restrict itself to natural philosophy, to birds and insects and earthquakes and rainbows, and kindred subjects, but would embrace also the works of man.

To attempt a critical summary of a series of papers embracing such a vast variety of subjects as were dealt with last year, would evidently be out of the question; but, probably, the subject of the widest general interest which, in a number of different papers and discussions, has been brought before us during the past year is that of the moa. Mr. Tregear, in his very valuable paper, has discussed the historical question from a new point of view, that of comparative philology, and I suppose there is no living man more pre-eminently qualified than he is for the task. I would also draw attention to those most comprehensive and suggestive remarks on the subject which were given by Sir James Hector in Otago, and which will be found recorded in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for 1892, pp. 555 et seq. I would express the hope that further explorations, on the lines he has suggested, may not only set at rest the historical question as regards Maori and moa, but may also give us much light on the evolution of varieties or species in prehuman times.

When the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science met at Christchurch in January, 1891, the Presi-