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There is, I think, a special value in meetings such as the present, affording as they do an opportunity for looking back, not only at the proceedings of the Institute, but also at some of the principal events in the literary and scientific world, during the past year, and then of glancing forward at the aim and objects of the Society in the future.

The New Zealand Institute already possesses a history of its own, and one which reflects great credit on the members of its various incorporated Societies, and I may add on the colony as a whole. Thirty-two years ago, when the total European population was but 32,000, the New Zealand Society was founded, mainly through the instrumentality of Sir George Grey; and, although it never met with the success that it deserved, we cannot regard the efforts of its promoters as thrown away. They were the real pioneers of the movement; they broke up the virgin soil, and planted the germ out of which has sprung the present Institute, with branches established in almost every provincial district, and an influence extending from Auckland to Invercargill.

The existing Association, however, dates only from 1867, when the Act for its establishment was passed, or rather from the following year, when the separate bodies then existing at Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch became incorporated with the central Institute.