THE AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4401, 3 October 1871, Page 3

THE AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

A special meeting of the members of I the Auckland Institute was held lust / night, in the Museum Buildings. There was a good attendance of members, notwithstanding the inclement evening.— ln the absence of the President, Captain Heale, Dr. Purchas was elected to the chair, on the motion of Mr. Stewart. — The Chairman explained briefly what was the intention of the Council of the Institute in regard to the object for which the meeting was called. The old building, which was in a very dilapidated condition, had been pulled down, and the contractor bound to make good the outside of the remaining portion of the building. It was only intended to < erect a small portion at present, and in this the contents of the Museum would be stored, and tho various little offices provided. He called upon the secretary to detail the steps that had been taken.--Mr. Kirk then proceeded to relate the result of the canvass of the members which had been made bj himself, in company with the President. Every person upon whom they had waited 'heartily approved of the proposals made to provido sufficient and safe accommodation for the stores in the Museum. MrvJ. C, Firth, when waited upon, said he would be one of ton to give £20 each ; and Dr. i Stratford had even outstripped that 5 liberality, for he offered to bo one of five

to give £100 eaoh. Thoro ww no doubtj but a sum of £1,000 could easily bo raised 1 for the proposed new buildings. They ihad resolved to, increase the number of the (Vunril, so that a share of the com' mercial element might be introduced Then again with the permanent levels of the streets in that neighbourhood. He (Understood that those levels were 14ft. below the present ones, but, from the very contour of tho ground they had, exoavation would be necessitated. They proposed to build the upper wing at present, one end ooming out to Princes-street, and the other running back to the end of their allotment. Then, in course of time, another wing migkt be built, having a frontage to the sea, and a connecting wing facing Princes-street. The wing at present intended to be built would be 105 ft. in length by 35ffc. wide. It was proposed to have the walls of sufficient strength that a gallery might be erected in ifc in course of time, as soon as their funds allowed them to go to that expense. He detailed how the inside was to be divided, and stated that ail admitted that , the site was one of the best that could be had. — Dr. Purchas, after a few remarks supplementary to what the Secretary had said, moved the following resolution : — " That in the opinion of this meeting the number of members forming the Council of the Institute should be increased from eight to eleven, exclusive of the President."— Mr. P. A. Philips seconded the motion, which on being put was agreed to. — Dr. Purchas then moved, " That the following gentlemen be the new members of the Council :— Dr. J. L. Campbell, Thomas Russell, and James McCosh Clark." He remarked that two of those named had expressed their willingness to act if elected, and he had no doubt Mr. Clark would do so also. — Mr. James Baber seconded the motion, which was put and unanimously agreed to. — Dr. Purchas then moved, " That the Council be authorised to call for competitive designs and estimates of buildings for a Museum, a freo public library, and for oiher purposes connected with the objects of : the Institute." — Mr. Philips said ; there was no limited cost stated. — The Chairman said that would be for the meeting to fix.— After some general conversation, Mr. Stewart i seconded the motion pro forira, so that a : discussion might ensue. — Mr. Dyson said : in regard to the level of the streets he ' thought Fort Britomart was doomed to i go into the sea, and if it went there he i was sure the city authorities would wish J to reduce the level of the streets. By the i old building being pulled down they wero ■ now removed from the danger of fire from ) the outside, and as they had a good build- 1 ing here he thought they should be in. ] no hurry with erecting a new building. — < The Chairman said those things had been < all considered by the Council. Tho pre 3 sent President was well acquainted with i these matters, and he thought, now when < they saw a way of getting the nocessary J funds, it would be a pity to throw cold ( waLer upon the scheme. There were now 1 some exceedingly valuable specimens of i natural history in the Museum, and i which, if destroyed, could not be replaced i for any money. It would be a great pifcy 1 if a five should occur in a wooden J building, and lose all the treasures ifc i contained. Dr. Campbell had set them s a good example in building concrete f houses, and ho was personally in favour 'j of auch a style of building. As the I 3 Museum would be lighted from the top, | 1 it did not matter much what its front j t wns like at fi-'sfc. The intention of the j J Council was to ask the city authorities f about the permanent levels of the streets 7 in this nefghbotirhood, and, if possible, c abfcain from them a guarantne that those s levels W'll be adhered to, and if they r ieviated from them in future then tho svord compensation came in. As to the lost of the plans, he thought about £25 would bo near the mark, but he left that frith the members to fix. — Mr. Philips said, as the levela of the streets had been referred to, he might say that a few days S vi-o he had a conversation with the . t President on the matter, and' had said , « Mat the permanent levels were Lift. ' h uelow the present level of Princes-street. *• Diem was no doubt but tho level would be P lltered, and that at no distant date. A short time aijjo them was a petition sent j ;o the City Council from the ratepayers tl n this neighbourhood, asking that the ' Greets be reduced to the permanent level. ' n —Mr. Baber moved as an amendment, ' q 'That the Council be requested to proQh cidc suitable and safe accommodation for oi ihe contents of tho Museum income of the j » jnoccnpiotl Government buildings, in '*' preference to calling for plans at the pre- i . ?ent j-itue." — Mr. Philips seconded the imendmenfc. Ho said he hud plenty of done nt Mangapai, and would freely give the stone for the purpose, but would not r , promise to open up the quarry and land c j it inj, Auckland. The atone was about si four miles inland. — The Chairman hoped , t; Mr. Baber would not press his amend- > tl cnent. He would be very glad if , ft the contents of the Museum wero ( t put- in safe quarters until they ,ll had a secure building of their ', " )wn to put them in. The present ' building is very insecure, and ;had t they been in, possession of a good building, safe from thieves as well as fire, the f, Museum would not have suffered so v serious a loss as it had lately done. If f< the contents were removed For a time, he fi thought the building of their own should t be proceeded with meanwhile. — Mr. s Stewart said the Mangapai stone was of 8 a good class, and while he agreed with s employing ns much local material as possible, it was impossible to have it of local production.— The Secretary said r there wore several reasons why they should not vote for the amendment. £100 had been promised on condition that four other .similar amounts be got, and other jj large sums on equally favourable eondi* u tions. — Tho amendment was put and lost, c when the original motion was carried. — d Some desultory conversation ensued about d various things, during which the Secretary * drew particular attention to exceedingly c rich specimens of arsenic thiokly impreg- " nated with gold obtained from f the Tokatea Goldmining Company, and a very fine amethyst from Canada found inside a large boulder. y Those articles were on the table for c examination by membera.— The Chairman I drew attention to what he had said Borne p two years ago about his well having been c injured by refuse from a slaughter-houae. Sinoe then he had made a very careful ° investigation into the matter, and found " the cause was a local one. As his t former cfcatemonfc had got publicity, lie 'wished his correction' to get an equal publicity. The special meeting then ended, and ' * the members resolved themselves iuto the << ordiu'ary monthly meeting. The Chair- a map. then called upon the secretary to c reail the . ' 6 List of New Membebs.— -The Secre- [ £ tnry then read, the following list of mem* ! h bcrawho had been admitted Bince last' q meeting : — Messrs. Edward Einloeh, I Auckland ; William Grorrie, Auckland ; & and William Ladder, Auckland. £ Donations to the Museum and o Litjbaby. — The followingdonattons to the • Library and Museum were acknowledged Z to have been received since) last meeting : & — -jSfew Zealand Dictionary, Archdeacon ?

Williams ; Parliamentary K&portfc parts 1, 2, 3 (1871) ; ParlU'ttieatarj Papers, from the Hon. the Colonial Secretary j silioified wood, TiJooq, Kussell, Bay of Islands ; cirripedes, C. Sanders^ tropioal seed, picked up on the beach of Meredryf •Island ; Refcmifce, from the ' Burangi coal mine, Mr. L. Mair, a fine amethyst, Canada, uaultinus elegant, Thames, D. M. Beerej one skin Prim. Banksii, Rev. A. G. Parohfta j fi?e speci» mens arsenic, richly impregnated with gold, Tokatea Goldmining Company; alluvial gold, native platinum^ "West Coast, D. L. Murdoch; ruby copper, vitreous copper, nephrite, T. Heale; tomahawk, formerly belonging to Taraia, Dr. Campbell; two speoi mens of echinus from Pacifto Island, and two crustacean specimens, ditto, Dr. Wright ;#; # selenite,' ; tanekaha gum, magnesian wire, Dr. Stratford; brown hematite, Kaipara, wood sectious from old London Bridge, W. Jr. Palmer ; I Weta deinaoridea macrocephela, Little Barrier Island, — Hopkins jpipe-fish, J". Matthews ; small shark, W. Knox, , cutter ' Lily ;' skin of wild dog, Kaipara, Coates Brothers ; Thames auriferous ! specimens, Thomas Russell ; crystallised limestone, T. Russell; two auriferous specimens, C. Tothill ; and a centipede, I by Dr. Lee.— The Secretary also read an interesting letter from Dr. Campbell/ which accompanied the presentation of the tomahawk, showing how it J came into his possession in the early days of the , colony. Many a man had been killed with it, and the 014 ohief ate ' most of those he killed. j Papsbs. — Owing to the great length of j the paper, by Dr. Stratford, "On the De- | fences of the HaTbour of Auokland," an ! the late hour of the evening, it waa de oided to postpone the reading of it to the next meeting. — The next paper was, " Notes on a Thermal Spring near Helensville," by Mr. Robert Mair.^-'fhe Score. tary read it in the absence of the author. The spring was situated on a small flat piece of swamp land at the head of the Kaipara river, about a quarter of a mile from the western bank of the river, and about two miles from Holenaviile. It was several years since he had visited it, but at that time the temperature was 120' Fahr.,although it was surrounded by a cold stream. He had since heard that it had been visited by others, when it was found to be cold. He therefore inclined to the idea that it was an intermittent spring.— The Secretary stated that this spring was situated on the land lately purchased from the natives for the Provincial Government by John Sheehan. — Mr. Stewart stated that many attempts had been made by others to get the spring included in leases, but had failed ; but that it wag in the block of 4,000 acres purchased by the Provincial Government. -Dr. Niohoison said he had visited the district referred to often, and condemned the idea of it being an intermittent spring. He had seen these springs, but one of them larger than the other. Mr. McLeod had enclosed the place, and he never failed to get a warm bath when he went to it. He did not know the temperature of the water, as he had never had a thermometer when he was there. He never before heard of it being an intermittent spring, but he knew of several people who said they could not find it whoa they visited the district. — - The next paper read waa one by Mr. T. Kirk, F.L. S., "On a New Zealand Species of Pittosporum," of which the native name waa stated to be Tarafca. Ifo enumerated the different varieties found iv the Southern and Northern Islands. Tlio ialunds of the Auckland const was particuJarJy rich iv different species. — A vote of thanks to the Chairinim terminated the proceedings.