OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19351, 11 December 1924, Page 5

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

ANNUAL MEETING. The annual meeting of the Otago Institute was held at the Museum on Tuesday evening, Dr Benson presiding. Professor Renhani read a .profound and scholarly paper by Sir Frederick Chapman on some considerations as to the period during which life hr.a existed on the earth. He argued from the standpoint that life must have begun in a very minute form, and showed that the progress to so huge a form, as for Instance the blue whale, must have taken i n enoimous length of time. The calculations he made on this basis supported the very longest estimates made by geologists.

Mr R. S. Allan presented a paper on “The Geology of the Lower VYnihao Hublii.” Mr (4. Simpson showed specimens of plants (omul in new habitats by Messrs ,T. S. Thomson, J. MTutyre. and himself. The following are the plants:—Found at Maungatnn—Aciphylla conspieua, seneeio c laeagriifolius, oloaria virgata, cyathodes coleueoi, celmisia densiflora. Found a: Mount Watkin—Helirhrysum Purdiei and a new aciphylla (not yet named). The annual reporr. stated that at (he ooginning of the year there had been 211 members. During the year 2(J new members had been elected, 21 had resigned, and there, had been four deaths. The membership at the close of the period had been 212. The expedition to the Chatham Islands, which had cost approximately £l6O, had been successful, and a lot of material was being prepared for publication. For the Fellowship of the New Zealand Institute two names had been submitted to the Board of Governors. The full libiary vote had been absorbed in paying subscriptions to journals and in making good arrears in binding. New books on zoology, botany, and anthropology were now available to members in the University sections devoted to the subjects. The average attendance had been between 30 and 40.

The financial statement showed that the institute had £2Bl 17s at the commencement of last year, and at the end of 1024 had £317 5s 8d to its credit.

The report and balance sheet were adopted. The officers elected for the ensuing year ifrere:—President, Mr J. C. Begs; vicepresidents—Dr Benson and Mr W. Martin ; hon. secretary, Mr R. S. Allan; hon. treasurer, Mr J. W. Milnes; lion, auditor, Mr \V. D. Anderson; hon. librarian, Mr H. D. Skinner; council—Hon. O. M. Thomson, Messrs H. D. Skinner, S. Angel!, Dr J. Malcolm, Rev. J. E. Holloway, Hr W. B. Benham. and Professor J. Park. THE “OVERRUN” IN CREAM-BUYING. TO THE EDITOR. StH, —You published, over your loading article, in a recent issue of the Otago Daily Times, a statement on the authority of the head of tho Dairying Department (Mr Singleton) to the effect that any butter manufacturer buying cream with an allowance for overrun of more than 21 per cent, or at the outside 22 per cent., was not dealing justly with the dairy farmer. In other recent issues of the Times a correspondent— I'Wadtahuna,” I think—dealing with the same question, asks why one Otago company has the extraordinary overrun of 24.78 percent. So far his very reasonable requests remain unanswered. ,

A very much interested reader of tho correspondence, I have waited in the. expectation of an interesting explanation from those concerned, the directors or manager of the company indicated, but profuse though its press effusions have been in the past, not a word of explanation does it vouchsafe to the appeal of your correspondent. But if the statement by the head of the Dairying Department, as published by you is applied to the case of an over-run of 21.78 per cent., it would seem that the company concerned is not dealing fairly with the dairy farmer.—l am, etc., W. D. Mason. Middlemarch, December 8.