Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 9 Supplement.djvu/58

666 Strong testimony to the indifference of the Marine Mollusca to extremes of temperature is given by the deep-sea dredgings which have been made during the past few years. These dredgings have proved that marine molluscs of high organisation live at enormous depths, where the temperature of the water is close on freezing point.

We find, then, the Marine Mollusca, whether of high or of low organisation, exhibit a remarkable indifference to heat and cold, the same genus flourishing both where exposed to intense heat and where subjected to intense cold. The prime cause of their present geographical distribution cannot, therefore, be variation in temperature.

The more or less abundant supply of food is probably the most potent of the influences which regulate the present distribution of these animals, and to the same cause may be ascribed the great size attained by certain molluscs, such as the Tridæna gigas.

is with regret I have to call the attention of the members of the Institute to the very small progress that scientific education is making in New Zealand. This is not only the case with the instruction now being given in our schools, but also in the training of the future teachers.

Colleges have been established in Otago and Canterbury with the necessary appliances for teaching the higher branches of science, but there is no systematic elementary training to produce a supply of students. In the elementary schools it is absolutely neglected; I have attempted to show further on the cause of this. The High School at Dunedin, and Christ College School, both have able science teachers; but instead of their whole time being devoted to the preparation and delivery of lectures, and to tutorial work in science, they have the general class-work of a division entrusted to them, the science work being taken when they are liberated by their class being taken by other special masters. Position in the school being in no way dependent on their scientific knowledge, the boys think it is of no value, and look upon its study as a bore.

It may fairly be assumed that the valuable prizes offered by the University as Junior Scholarships, which are worth £135, would be competed for by the best informed among the students in the colony, and would be a fair criterion of what is being done. What do we get? One student recommended for a scholarship, and only one other obtaining the necessary minimum to compete; and this result with a set of questions,