OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Evening Star, Issue 10781, 16 November 1898, Page 1

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

The annual meeting of the Otago Institute was held in the Lecture Hall at the Museum last night. The president (Mr F. R. Chapman) occupied the chair, and there were abiut twenty ladies and gentlemen present. ANNUAL REPORT. The annual report, which was submitted by Mr A. Hamilton, contained the following clauses;— The Council report that since the last annual meeting eight meetings of the Council have been held, and this meeting will be the seventh meeting of the members for the session. It i« much to bo regretted that from various causes the attendance of the members at. the Hidings has been smaller than usual. The membership of the Institute now stands at 126, and though a larger number of members have been elected this year than last year, the number o i tlie roll is less than it should be. The list of papers brought forward is appended. The Council wish again to impr; ;s on members the desirability of helping on the cause of science by recording any natural history observations they may make, even if they do not suffice to make a formal paper. To me H this the lion, secretary was instructed to brag up a budget of natural history notes from time to lime, as sent to him by members who we/o unable to bring them forward themselves. Up to the present date he has not received any notes. Early in the session the colony suffered a great loss in the death of Professor T. Kirk F.L.S., and the following resolution of the Council was passed and a copy for' 7 rlcd lo Mrs Kirk .—Moved—” That the Council reel !s its deep sense of the loss sustained by the colony in the death of the late Thomas Kirk F.L.S., whose scientific labors have contributed largely to the advancement of the study of botany in New Zealand.” At the close of the session we have lo note with regret the death of Mr John Buchanan. F.L.S., another eminent botanist, and pioneer in scientific work in New Zealand; and last, but not least, tie Right Honorable Sir George Grey, one of the earliest members of the New Zealand Institute, and original president in 1857 of the lx ew Zealand Society—the first scientific society founded in New Zealand. ~ ~ , The Council have decided to alter the method of procuring the serial publications, and have revised the list. The numbers will in future be received monthly in one parcel from England, and it is hoped that in this way there will be no parts lost. A committee has been set up to recommend books necessary for tlie library, and they have reported to the effect that monographs of the principal groups in the animal kingdom are specially required, and they have decided to take a separate group each year. In accordance with this they have selected a number of monographs io be procured m the group of land and marine worms, taking the opportunity of thus availing themselves of the special knowledge of the literature of the subject possessed bv Dr Benham. ... Tlie Council trust that the Government will lose no time in making suitable arrangements for the completion of the work of the New Zealand flora, left incomplete by 1 rofessor Kirk, as for many years the work lias been urgently required. , . The Council desire to recognise the satisfactory progress made by the New Zealand Institute in the publication of the valuable work by Mr A, Hamilton on ‘The Art and Ethnology of the Maori,’ and trust that, there will be no delay in tbc- publication of the ’-c----maining parts. DEPORT RE MARINE ITSIt HATCUERY AT PURAKANI'I. Since our last annual meeting matters have been almost at a standstill, but. we hope that we shall soon be able to report favorably on the near prospect of the establishment oi Die proposed hatchery. --On the Bth December last, m reply to a letter from Mr G. M. Thomson, the secretary to the Marine Department wrote to say that the sum of £750 was placed on the Supplementary Estimates, and voted for “ Fish hatcheries and expenses of Expert Ayson to Canada and America, but that nothing will be done by the Government in the matter of establishing hatcheries pending the return of the expert. Before his departure for America ami Europe, Mr Ayson came down to Dunedin and met some of tho members of the Committee and of DuOtago Acclimatisation Society. As we understand that he has made excellent use of Ins lime in visiting the principal hatchery estab lishments and biological stations ql Die northern hemisphere, and generally in obtaining information on the subject, we anticipate that he will be able to give a verv lull report of what is being done. As the amount, asked by us from the Government as a subB idv was £SOO, and as Mr Ayson’s expenses would considerably exceed the extra £250 voted last year, we are glad io notice that an additional sura of £250 has been voted this session. On 9th February Mr G. M. Thomson wrote to the Minister for Marine furnishing details of the proposed scheme, and urging the setting aside of the reserve at Purnkamii as specified in our last report. This matter was kept before the attention of the Government by the Hon. W. M. Bolt, M.L.C., and Mr J. A. Millar. and on the 22nd September the area indicated was gazetted as a reserve for a fish hatchery. , . .. We regret that no further communication has been received from the Scotch Fishery Board in regard to the experiments to be undertaken on behalf of this Institute in the retardation of fish ova. In reply, however, to Dr Chilton, who made direct inouiry on the subject, Dr Fulton, the scientific superintendent of the Scotch Board, stated Dial the delay was due to the transference of the Board's hatchery from Dunbar to Aberdeen, and that he would shortly forward a communication to us on the subject . The balance-sheet showed that the receipts from all sources amounted to £99 18 1 3J and the expenditure to £42 11s 31, leaving a credit balance of £57 7s, as against a credit of £27 9s 3d at the close of the previous year. The total assets amounted to £453 18s 9J, against which the only liabilities were outstanding accounts, £2O. On the motion of Mr A. Hamilton, seconded by Dr Hocken, the report and balance-sheet were adopted, ELECTION OF OFFICERS. The election of office-bearers was then proceeded with, and resulted as follows ; President, Mr F. R. Chapman ; vice-presi-dents, Dr Scott and Mr A. Bathgate; Council —Dr Benham, Dr Hocken, MrG. M. Thomson, Dr Shand, Mr B. C. Aston, Mr E. Melland, Mr J. Crosbie Smith ; secretary, Mr A. Hamilton ; treasurer, Mr J. S. Tennant; auditor, Mr D. Brent. THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. The President delivered an interesting address on the importance of conserving natural scenery. The subject, he said, was one which was now receiving attention in almost every part of the world, but up to a comparatively recent period it was not thought worthy of being included in the programme of a State policy. It had gradually forced itself upon countries like Switzerland, because tourists from other parts of the world had persisted in going and looking at the scenery there, much to the astonishment of the mountain people in that country —they being altogether unable to appreciate the beauties which surrounded their cottages. The Government turned their attention to the matter, and realised the fact that the barren mountains and apparently unproductive snowfields were one of Switzerland’s greatest assets. Matters had gone on until now Switzerland, as a country, was almost free from taxes. New Zealand had entered the field as a kind of competitor of Swi’zerland. Almost every country had attractions, and those that attracted visitors to New Zealand distinctly marked it as one of those countries which came into competition with the few others of first class order of natural scenery. That being so, he urged that the Government should conserve the best scenic places by making them into national parks under proper supervision, and that roads should be made to give comparatively easy aud quick access to them. He referred at some length to what had been done in this respect in New South \Vules, and gave an interesting description of the wondrous Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains, laying particular stress on the precautions that had

been taken to prevent damage being done to the slabctius and stalagmites by visitors. New South Wales, however, w.k£ only possessor of such caves. The WSwina Caves, some milts out of Auckland, were quite equal in grandeur and magnificence to the Jenolan Caves, and he was glad to learn that the Government had undertaken to have them preserved. Nogreatdamagecouldeverbe done to the Soundsor theirAlpinescenery, but the whole beauty of limestone caves could be ruined by the thoughtless vandalism of tourists and visitors in breaking off parts of the columns and fantastically-shaped forma* lions to take away as mementoes of the visit. I'tm a< qwikr ion of the Nation d Park near Tokarau, in the centre of the North Island, was a splendid inquisition, and retained for all lime a m gtiifi'ent A'pine area and field for scientific n-scur hj. iu addition to what the Government had done and could do, he thought that each county should endeavor to get its park, and that even small pieces of natural scenery should be preserved and rendered safe from destruction. He thought some part of the Nuggets district might very easily have been left in its primitive state, and if auy were still available he urged that it should be secured as a nat ional park for the hem fit of the residents of Dunedin. He would i>ke to see the matter of the conservation of the scenery taken up heartily, so that people might make themselves the guardians of what Nature had provided fonhc- beautifying ol the land. —(Applause) Mr A. Batikiate expressed regret that the Water of Leith Valley had not been preserved for the public. At the present time picnic parties could not go to any suitable spot near Dunedin without trespassing on private properly. Mr J. Ali.en, M H R , suggested that societies such as the Institute should bring under the notice of die Government spots that ought to be pr. sei vedas national parks, and that something slu-uhl bo done to recover suitable areas round about Dunedin for the eoj .yrm-nt of the public. Mr Chatman, in ids reply, said that the icor.ery on the West Coast, to which refer--i e ■ had been made, was indestructible — the Sounds could take care of themselves; but there was no occasion to alienate land ii-.rc, for when settlement did go there it would he purely fishmuau’s settlements. As to resetves mar towns, he had thought a good dci/l about, that question. The only way to gel them was to pay for them. Unfortunately the land was alienated, and the ufi.ee*s <-f destruction was going on. There was sifil a beautiful bmh area under FlagklT, but ev< ry year it got narrower and narrower. The City Council had done something to preserve si-tne areas at the head of he s'icatii, hut it w, of course, desirable that something more should be done. This concluded the business.