OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1387, 29 June 1878, Page 9

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

The monthly popular mett'ng f the institute was held on the 25th in the lower hall of the .Museum, Great King street, and was well attended by both ladies and gontlcmsn. The Pi osident, Mr W. >'. Blair, prestdod. NEW MKHBHR. The Chairm»u announced that Mr Beuchlor had been elected a racmbor ot the Institute Mr J. S. Webb proposed pt Ferguson for election also. TIIB FAUNA OF NEW ZBA&AND Professor Hutton then delivered a highly interesting lecture on the above subject, making everything quite clew to the dullest apprehotiMon, and carefully explaining the precise meaning t> be attached to every technical term introduced. Be prefacrd the lecture by a brief reference to his recent visit to Australia, and added gome obsor- ■ rations respecting the wonderful differences which existed between the fauna of New Zealand and that of Australia. The leoture proper wes divded into two parts, the first being devoted to a classiflcaion and description of the animals forming tbe fauna of the Colony, and the second part being taken up with » coniideration of the origin of that fauna. The animals he divided into two distinct classes—aborigines and colonists, the first being n&tivo of and peculiar to the country, and the latter having come to it at vaiious epochs of time from other countries. The aborigines he subdivided into two series of animals, which he respectively Btyled endem'c and antarctic. The former composed those animals indigenous to a particular district, or whose headquarters were fixed in a particular district, such »s the kiwi, the k&kapo, the hula, a peculiar kind of plovor, a Jizwd named the tuatara, which seemed to be a connecting link between the lizard and tho crocodile, while the autarkic include! those anlm»l» which were closely allied to others of the came genera found in South America, and the various portions of the Antarctic region ; as, for instsneo, tho animal known as tho sand-eel, a longitudinal ribbed mussel, very common at the iTorbury, and the round pipi. The class termed coloniats was subdivided into six series of animals, and representatives of each were alluded to and described. The subdivisions were :— Australians (or aoimsis that have migrated from Australia), Polynesians (or animals that htve migrated from the Society Iclands, and others of tho Polynesian Group), South Americ»n, Asiatic, Cosmopolitan, and Erratic. HaviDg finished this pat-t of his locturo, tho Profmsor proceeded to account for the origin of the Now Zealand fauna. He considered it highly probable that in the middla of the secondary period a largo Antarctic Continent existed comprising New Zealand, the Polynesian Islands, South America, .South Africa, »nd South Asia, but quite distinct from Australia ; that thin Continent contained no mammals or snakes, and but few insects, and that everything wore a sombre appearance, In process of time, and by slow degrees, pirts of tho continent became submerged, then Now Zealand ab a whole became detached, then the Chathams and otner outlying islands pßcame detached, and eventually (in the earlier pHo-

cene period) New Zoaland became separated into two large islands. The stream of uiammals which came from Northern Europe, America, and Asia, and spread rapidly over Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, were denied admission to New Zoiland by its ear:y constitution into an island by itself, and hencs it remained without mammals and snako. No gentleman evincing a desire to make any comment on the lecture, The Chairman expressed tho gratification with which ho had listened to it, and hoped that ii 3 rofesaor Hutton or some other of then naturalists would treat the flora of the Colony in a similar way. The assemblage then dispersed. The next meet ng will be hold on Tuesday ovenlnjr, the 9th prox , when Mr Arthur will road a paper on " Acclimatisation."