Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 16.djvu/44

xxxviii popular of modern novelists; Stanley Jevons, the logician; and, last not least, Spottiswoode, the late President of the Royal Society, a man celebrated no less for his ability and scientific attainments than for his high character and benevolence, lately laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, amidst statesmen, warriors, poets, and heroes of literature and science, whose names will ever be honoured throughout the British Empire.

And now, having referred to the history of the Institute in the past, and glanced at a few of the principal events which have recently taken place in the world of science and literature, I turn to the future, and ask, what do we set before us as the object of the Institute, and with what attainment may we rest content? I have already spoken of the various subjects which were specially recommended for study fourteen years ago. Of these, some few (such as the history of the Maori race, about which Mr. Colenso, Mr. Travers, and others have contributed valuable and exhaustive papers) may be considered as almost completed; others, perhaps, have for various reasons ceased to be of importance; but the large majority call for further investigation, and will for many years demand careful research. I think, too, that the time has come when it may fairly be considered whether the subjects on which papers are specially desired should not take a wider range. The Institute and the incorporated societies supply machinery which is already being utilized, but which I believe to be capable of being utilized to a greater extent than it is at present, in the grand work of diffusing general education. In this sense I regard the Institute as supplementary to the schools, which are so rapidly increasing in number, and the University Colleges which are being established in all the centres of population in New Zealand, as a means by which that spirit of inquiry which has been aroused in early youth may find scope in later life. The great discoveries that are being every day made in the scientific world show us that, in the present state of society, some amount of scientific education is, in most cases, essential to make a successful practical man, a fact which none are more ready to admit than those who themselves feel the want of such a training. At the same time I would impress on every member of the Society that science, in the popular sense of the term, is only a part of education; and I trust the day may be far distant when literature is neglected, as some fear it may be, for the study alone of purely external objects. I believe that vast good is done by those who bring before the notice of others the thoughts and actions of great men, whether in ancient or modern times, in other parts of the world. By this means, a healthy desire for improvement may be instilled into the minds of