HAWKE'S BAY PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3489, 12 September 1882, Page 2

HAWKE'S BAY PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

This Society held their usual monthly Ordinary Meeting last night; it was well attended; which we were glad to see. Among the audience were a good number of Ladies, and of the young of; both sexes, and several Country We still think (as we have observed TJjwfc fore) that more of our Town Members should attend those meetings ; some j>-£ whom, too, (as is well known,) reside in the very neighborhood of the Athinaeum, -_» —" within call." We were piea'sed to the President and Vice-President Stuart and Dr. Spencer) again at their \ posts. The Bishop, as President, took the Chair. The minutes of the last meeting having been duly read and confirmed, —the business of the evening commenced by the Hon. Secretary reading his Paper "On some newly-discovered Arachnids. 1 " This paper was both scientific and popular, and occasioned much interest. One of the creatures described was indeed " a puzzler," (the term that Mr Colenso himself gave it,) it was a strange-looking animal, with a black body no bigger than a marrow fat pea, aud with legs 3 inches long! and such legs, too! so tiny, so attenuated, and hooked at their tips; and then its thumping-big lobster-like claws ! This strange animal was captured last year by Mr Colenso in the 70-mile Bush, after 3 years patient research, (having first seen it ffaere in 1879). However ifi could manage to thread its way through long thick hanging and shaggy mosses, on the trunks of living trees, is, as its describer said, a mystery ; but that, it seems, is its own proper habitat. Partaking, as it does, of 2 or 3 genera of Arachnida, ifc~-< has been provisionally named, Phalangtum (Phrynus) Cheleferoides : (we hope we are correct in thus attempting to give its long name). The other Arachnids were some very fine spiders: one, from Mr J. Drumruond o Te Ongaonga, is a kind

of trap-door spider, £and was found by Mr. Drummond some two feet underground, inhabiting soft mud! Hia description (in his letter to Mr. Colenso), of the creature's trying to escape by diving into the liquid mud, and its being again got out by plunging the shovel deep in after it, and its still being dry, and looking like rich velvet, was really good. Other fine earthdwelling Spiders from Mr Colenso's garden, were also shown; among them was a splendid fellow (or lady), Macrothele Huttonii, with its glaring mother-of-pearl-eyes; which awoke strange thoughts as to its powerful bite. Fine specimens of all those various Arachnids, both dry and in spirits, were shown. The Hon. Secretary also read the second part of his Paper " On Nomenclature " (the first part having been read at the meeting in July). He showed, pretty severely, the wretched patois Maori used by the Government Officials in their official communications made in the Maori language,—also, in the legal (official) Maori; contrasting it with what i» ever-so-much-better done at tbe little kingdom of the Sandwich Islands; and wondering how the Maoris can ever understand if, —which Mr Colenso declared he could not, without having also the English official document thus translated, in order to compare it. Several other strange aberrations and innovations in the English and learned languages, were also pointed out by Mr Colenso; notably the name of our own Bay, Province, County, and District ; which, from Hawke s Bay (as given to it by its discoverer Captain Cook, and so handed down, and used for a century, and found in all maps,) is now persistently shrivelled to Haioke Bay, (soon to become Hawkley !)—and Cook's Strait has also dwindled to Cook Strait, &c, &c. And this innovation is in all the Colonial printed books (not Government Official), including tbe " Transactions of the N.Z. Institute," and the School Geographys and Maps for the children ! J Other gross innovations, in the departure from old-established scientific Natural History canons and rules, having reference to the names given to both plants and animals were also clearly shown ; as well as the incessantly naming (by our modern Colonial and mostly young inexperienced Naturalists) of new species after every mere finder, or forwarder of the same. This paper was further illustrated by .several interesting personal anecdotes of the late first Bishop of New Zealand Dr Selwyn, and some excellent and highly pertinent extracts from the English Botany of the late celebrated Sir James Edward Smith, the great English Botanist, — long the President of the Linna.an Society. Interesting observations in full support and accordance with both papers read, were made by the Rt. Rev. Chairman, and by Mr Locke, Mr Hamilton, and Mr Holder; and separate votes of thanks were cordially given to Mr Colenso. The finale (wind-up, or dessert—as Mr Colenßo facetiously styled it, " of oyster Bhells without oysters,") was composed of half-a-dozen trays of superior fossils, including several scarce shells and Polyzoa in excellent preservation ; from Takapau and Ormondville, collected by Mr John Stewart; from Kohurau, collected by Mr D. P. Balfour; and from near Pukekura, (shark's teeth of a large size) collected by Mr Weber. The Polyzoa— which we may tell our readers, are infinitely small marine microscopic animals, that lived some untold thousands of years ago, and helped to build up the hill, and mountain ranges of the present New Zealand— were truly marvellous, in their elegant and symmetric and beautiful shapes and lines and markings. The Plon. Secretary might well and truly say, speaking of them and their regular formation, and their Maker,—" He hath given them a law which shall not be broken." So ended a most enjoyable meeting. There being but one meeting more for this session of 1882, we would recommend members and their friends to put in an appearance when the time comes.