First Meeting: 10th May, 1904.

The President, Professor W. B. Benham, read his presidential address.

The President, after returning thanks for the honour done him in electing him to the office of President for another year, said that since the last presidential address was delivered the Institute had sustained the loss of two valuable members of its Council—Mr. Justice Chapman and Mr. A. Hamilton. Both gentlemen have been valued coadjutors in the Council's affairs. It was frequently complained that the meetings were “dull,” and in order to render them less dull, and even interesting, discussions of papers and casual talks on various subjects of interest would be welcomed. These two gentlemen were always ready to join in such discussions and to give such casual talks. There were, unfortunately, few members—lay members, if he might so express himself to distinguish them from the few professional scientists—who were so ready to give their opinions as those two were. One often hears it stated that in former days—in the good old days when the Institute was young, it was vigorous too—its meetings were interesting, the papers more varied and less abstruse, and so forth. It had sometimes occurred to him that a possible means of revival of that much-to-be-desired condition of affairs might be attained if they made it a rule that no professor or lecturer—i.e., no professional—should read a paper or even be present at the meetings. Let them lay their papers on the table for publication in the Transactions, but let the evening meetings be conducted by “lay members.” It had occurred to him that then, perhaps, younger folk would be induced to bring forward matter for discussion. In their programme for the present session they had, as members would be glad to note, two or three “new performers” in the lecture-room. It was a very general, but wholly erroneous, idea that the Institute was mainly connected with science; but that was not so. The laws of the Institute referred to the “promotion of art, literature, philosophy, and science,” and yet it had come about that science, at any rate in recent years, had predominated in the agenda lists, and that biology, perhaps, had till the last year or two taken the lead. Was there no advancement in art, literature, or philosophy? Where were their literary and philosophical members? Was it that the folk who were interested in these matters preferred to keep their ideas to themselves? Why was it that only scientific men, or chiefly so, attended and read their articles? Were they to conclude from this absence of votaries of arts, literature, and philosophy, and the presence of scientific men, that it was only science and its followers that were awake, alive, and active? It might be that there were societies for arts, literature, and philosophy; if so, they seemed to hide their light under a bushel. In any case, it would be a pleasing change if some of their members were to discourse on some of these subjects at their meetings. Since their last meeting two important events in the scientific world had occurred. The first was the meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, which met for the first time in Dunedin, and for the second

time of its existence in New Zealand. The success of the gathering was due primarily to the energy and labour of the local secretary, Mr. G. M. Thomson—(applause)—and also to the activity of the various business men of the city, who willingly gave up their time, and acted on the different sub-committees to which was intrusted the work of entertaining the visitors. The second event was the safe arrival of the “Discovery,” with the welcome news of “All well on board.” Biologically, the most important fact ascertained was that fossil plants occurred in the sandstone of the continental plateau, which rose to a height of 8,000 ft. or 9,000 ft. This added one more piece of evidence in favour of the view already put forward by several Australasian biologists that Tierra del Fuego extended further south at some earlier geological period than it did at present, and connected with an antarctic continent, which in its turn was continuous with New Zealand or Australia. But in order to judge of the period and character of this great land they must wait till the rocks gathered by the expedition had been examined. Nevertheless, those already collected by Borchgrevinck and previous explorers indicated a similarity, if not identity, with some of the rocks of Victoria. As the subject was suggested for discussion at one of their meetings, he would reserve further remarks on the importance of the results until that occasion. After referring to the completion of the marine-fish hatchery at Portobello, and to the attempts in January last to investigate the floor of the continental shelf round this colony, the President spoke of a number of scientific works recently completed in New Zealand, among which he mentioned Captain Hutton's “Index to the Fauna of New Zealand” and “Natural History of New Zealand,” and Mr. Hudson's “Neuroptera.” He then turned to a more special matter, and considered the utility of the study of zoology and botany, and in an interesting account of work carried on in both subjects he showed many serviceable results that were being daily achieved by investigators. One had only to refer to the bulky annual report of the Department of Agriculture to note the variety and the value of the investigations carried on by the Government biologists. The study of the life-histories of insects and other creatures—especially those that attacked the various kinds of fruit-trees, timber-trees, of cereals, and so forth—enabled the zoologist to suggest remedies or preventives. So, too, with regard to the various parasites that affected cattle. The proper treatment of the disease necessitated a knowledge of the cause, and this in turn demanded a scientific study of the organism that in many cases was the cause of the trouble. He proceeded to deal at length with some of these parasitic diseases and with the biological work required in treating them, making special reference to the cause of malarial fever, sleeping sickness, and other ailments, and the remedies which, after investigation by scientists, have been adopted to counteract some of them.

At the conclusion of the address, which occupied an hour and a half in delivery, Mr. J. C. Thomson proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Benham for his lucid and instructive remarks, which was carried with applause.

New Member.—Mr. E. Herbert.