![Thumbnail: [Volume 46, 1913 page 370]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_46/thumbnails/rsnz_46_00_0408_0370_ac_02.gif)
Annual Meeting: 23rd February, 1914.
C. J. Parr, Esq., Mayor of Auckland, President, in the chair.
Annual Report.—The annual report and audited financial statement was read to the meeting, and ordered to be printed and distributed among the members.
Abstract of Annual Report.
Members.—The number of new members elected during the year has been unusually small, amounting to five only. No doubt the reason for this is the canvass instituted last year, which resulted in the addition of 162 names to the roll. The names withdrawn from the roll during the year number twenty-one—six from death, and the remainder from resignation or non-payment of subscription for more than two consecutive years. This leaves the total membership at the present time at 370. It is satisfactory to be able to state that the Auckland Institute still retains the premier place among the incorporated societies so far as regards the number of members.
The Council have much regret in announcing the death of Mr. James Stewart, who has been associated with the Institute since its formation in 1868, and who has always taken a steady and consistent interest in its affairs. He has twice served as President, and, with two short intervals, has been a member of the Council since 1871. In 1906 he was appointed a Trustee, a position which he occupied up to the time of his death. The Council desire to express their high appreciation of the many services he has rendered to the Institute during his long and active membership.
All branches of the New Zealand Institute, and all workers engaged in scientific research in New Zealand, will regret the sudden death of Mr. A. Hamilton, late Director of the Dominion Museum, and a former President of the New Zealand Institute. The Council are anxious to place on record their high sense of the valuable nature of his work, more especially that portion of it dealing with the ethnology of the Maori race.
Finance.—The total revenue of the Working Account, excluding the balance in hand at the beginning of the year, has been £1,862 Os. 2d. This shows an increase of £508 7s. on the receipts for the previous year, which were £1,353 13s. 2d. Half of this increase is due to the payment of the Government subsidy of £250, which it will be remembered was voted by Parliament during the session of 1912 in recognition of an amount of £684 previously subscribed by the citizens of Auckland for the purchase of certain special additions to the Museum. The total expenditure has been much larger than usual, amounting to £1,590 10s. 2d., as against £1,465 5s. 10d. for the previous year. The increase is principally due to the expenditure on the large group of flightless birds recently installed in the Museum, and to the cost of the show-cases required for it and other important additions. The balance in hand at the present time amounts to £379 11s.
The legacy of £1,000 bequeathed by the late Sir John Logan Campbell has been paid by the Campbell trustees during the year, and added to the invested funds of the society. A further sum of £110 10s., derived partly from the sale of Museum endowments and partly from the life subscription account, has also been received. From these two sources the Capital Account of the Institute has been raised to the sum of £17,626 8s. 6d., almost the whole of which is now invested in specially selected freehold securities.
Meetings.—Seven meetings have been held during the year, at which fifteen lectures and papers have been contributed by various members.
Science and Art Bill.—During the last session of Parliament a Bill was introduced under the title of the Science and Art Bill, which, among other objectionable provisions, included certain clauses which imperilled the future existence of the New Zealand Institute as a self-governing body, and which provided for changes in the mode of publishing and distributing the Transactions which would have greatly hampered the operations of the Institute, and which would have made it subservient to a body mainly composed of the Government nominees to be set up under the Bill. The Council are glad to state
![Thumbnail: [Volume 46, 1913 page 371]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_46/thumbnails/rsnz_46_00_0409_0371_ac_02.gif)
that, mainly through, objections raised by the various societies incorporated with the Institute, these clauses were struck out of the Bill during its passage through Parliament.
British Association.—The next meeting of the British Association will be held in Australia in the month of August, and arrangements have been made by the Government to invite a number of the delegates to visit New Zealand early in September. A suggested programme, prepared by a reception committee sitting in Wellington, provides for the arrival of the visitors in Auckland and their immediate journey southwards to Wellington and Christchurch, in each of which towns a stay of three or four days is to be made, and meetings held. The Council are endeavouring to obtain an alteration of this programme under which a visit of reasonable duration may be made to Auckland.
Museum.—The number of visitors to the Museum has been very close to last year's record.
The most noteworthy improvement made in the Museum during the year has been the installation of a large group of flightless birds, including a restoration of the largest species of moa (Dinornis maximus); a full-sized model of the skeleton of the same, obtained from the well-known dealer, Mr. Damon; an actual skeleton of a smaller species of moa; a mounted specimen and a skeleton of the ostrich; an adult and a young emu; and two cassowaries. The whole group has been placed in a plate-glass show-case standing in the centre of the main hall.
Another conspicuous addition to the Museum is a group of birds of paradise, containing in all thirty-seven specimens of thirteen different species.
In order to bring these additions and many minor ones under the notice of the members and the citizens of Auckland generally, the Council decided that they should be inaugurated at a conversazione of members and their friends. This was held on the evening of the 8th October, 1913, and passed off most successfully, an attendance of about 550 being present.
The most important donation made to the Museum during the year is the Hon. E. Mitchelson's collection of kauri-gum, together with the plate-glass show-case in which it is exhibited. This collection, which has taken over forty years to form, and which includes picked examples of most, if not all, of the known varieties, is acknowledged to be the most complete in existence.
Several additions of importance have been made to the Maori collections by Dr. Roger Buddle, Mrs. George Humphries, Mr. George Wootten, Miss M. Makai, Mr. Griffin, Mr. Robison, Mr. A. E. Bregmen, and Mr. J. B. Thompson. In foreign ethnology the only addition of importance is a fine collection of weapons, implements, ornaments, &c., from the Louisiade Archipelago, purchased from Mrs. Ansley.
Library.—An expenditure of £190 has been incurred on the library during the year. In addition to the purchase of books, the magazines and serial publications subscribed to by the society have been regularly received and circulated among the members. A portion of the expenditure has been devoted to the binding of these serials, and over seventy volumes have been added to the library from that source alone. Of several donations from private individuals the most important is the presentation by Professor Brown of thirty-two volumes of the “Annalen der Physik.”
Further Accommodation required.—Two years ago the Council called attention to the drawbacks and deficiencies which, through want of space, impede the development of both the Museum and library, and will continue to do so in an increasing ratio until an enlargement of the buildings of no small size can be obtained. At the present time, if it is desired to show new additions of importance, room can only be found by withdrawing articles already on exhibition.
Last autumn a deputation from the Council waited upon the Premier in order to press upon his notice the claims of the Museum for a grant in aid of a Building Fund. Although the deputation was sympathetically received, the wave of financial stringency then passing through the Dominion precluded any hope of immediate monetary assistance. A promise, however, was made to the effect that the application would be favourably considered during the session of Parliament to open in June next. It will be the duty of the incoming Council to bring the matter once more under the notice of the Government, and to take such steps to support the application that may appear to be requisite.