PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1932, 15 July 1869, Page 3

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY.

The following is the report of the Council for the year ending June 30, 1869: The Council in presenting this report to the members of the Institute, feel that they have just cause for congratulation in the marked success which has attended the meeting of the Institute throughout the year, and in the increased number of members, One of the most important events connected with the Institute has been its incorporation with the New Zealand Institute under the Act of the General Assembly, by which that society was established. Among the conditions of incorporation, it is stipulated that one-third of the annual income of the Institute shall be devoted either to a local Museum or Public Library, or that one-sixth of the income shall be remitted to Wellington, to be expended there upon the Colonial Museum by the Governors of the New Zealand Institute. In accordance with this condition, one-third of the income of this Institute has been appropriated to the Museum under the direction of the President (Dr Haast.) The Council are persuaded that the members of the Institute made wise selection in determining upon this object. They have helped to promote the efficiency of an institution which must always be of the highest value in the prosecution of scientific researches, and which is intimately connected with the immediate objects of the Institute itself. The establishment of the HTew Zealand Institute, with which this Society is now incorporated, must be regarded as of especial importance, as forming a bond of connection between the various local scientific societies of the Colony, and as introducing an element of permanence, which has hitherto been wanting to their efforts, The publication of a selection of the papers read before this and similar societies is a further benefit of which the members have a valuable proof in the recently jmblished volume of the transactions of the New Zealand Institute. The efforts made by the President (Dr Haast) to supplement the vote passed in the Provincial Council for the erection of new buildings for the Museum, are deserving of special notice in this place; the subscriptions obtained by Mm, amounting to L4G3, have secured the adoption of an enlarged plan with some additions of an ornamental character, in keeping with the purpose for which the building is intended. Among the objects contemplated by the Institute, may be named the appointment of two or more members to write the history of the colonizing and progress of Canterbury, under the general direction and superintendence of the Council.

An enumeration of the papers read before the Institute follows.