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After this brief and imperfect sketch of the recent Transactions and present position of the Institute, I will proceed—so far as time will allow, and in accordance with a request addressed to me—to give a short account of my official visits during the past year to two of the most remarkable regions to be found in this or in any other country of the world. I allude, in the first place, to the great volcanic zone in the North Island, stretching for nearly 150 miles from the ever-steaming crater of Whakari (or White Island), in the Bay of Plenty, to Lake Taupo and the burning mountain of Tongariro, Here the traveller admires, under an Italian sky and in an Italian climate, a long succession of panoramas of hot lakes and boiling springs, far surpassing in variety, beauty, and curiosity, the famed geysers of Iceland. In the second place, I refer to Milford Sound and to those other grand and wondrous inlets of the south-west coast of the Middle Island, which, rarely visited by civilised man, and shrouded in almost perpetual mist and storm, combine the snowy peaks and glaciers of Switzerland with the gloomy forests, deep seas, and winding channels of the fiords of Norway.

My visit to the Hot Lakes was made in company with the Duke of Edinburgh and several officers of H.M.S. 'Galatea.' Leaving Auckland, by sea, on the 12th of last December, we landed on the following morning at Tauranga, where the "son of the Queen" (te tamaiti o te Kuini), as His Royal Highness is styled by the Maoris, was enthusiastically welcomed by seven hundred chiefs and clansmen of the tribes of the Arawas and of the Ngaiterangis. . It will be remembered that the last-named clan fought bravely against the British troops at the Gate Pa, and elsewhere, in 1864; but they soon afterwards made peace with the Government, and now at the korero (or conference) held to greet the Duke of Edinburgh, they vied with our faithful friends, the Arawas, in expressions of loyalty to the Queen, and of good will to the English settlers. At the conclusion of his speech, Enoka te Whanake, a chief foremost among our enemies during the late war, said; "It is true that I fought against the Queen at the Gate Pa; but I have repented of this evil, and am now living under the shadow of Her laws. As for this Tawhiao, who styles himself the 'King of the Maoris,' let him be brought hither as a footstool for the son of our Queen, whom we welcome among us this day."

From Tauranga we proceeded to Maketu, the principal kainga, or settlement, of the Arawas, and celebrated in their traditions as the spot where their forefathers, some twenty generations back, first landed in New Zealand.