NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2256, 30 July 1870, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE.

His Excellency the Governor, as President of the New Zealand Institute, delivered an address on Saturday last. The address, a very able one, was chiefly directed to the necessity for practical scientific instruction on this subject. His Excellency said .- — I will now proceed to the examination of a question of the highest practical {importance to the future progress of this community, —I mean the assistance which this Institute can furnish towards the supply of technical and scientific instruciiou. tt is well known that the relation of industrial education to industrial progress has for many years past excited keen interest in England and throughout Europe. In 1868 a .801001 Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to enquire and report on this entire subject, and strongly recommended that ample public provision should he made for Schools of Arts and Mines, and generally for furnishing instruction in theoretical and applied science to the industrial classes. As the duties of the Governor of a colony possessing Parliamentary institutions are social rather than political, I have made it my business to study the voluminous report of the above-mentioned Committee, and many other works of authority bearing on the same question ; ami I shall indeed he proud and happy if the information thus collected can in any way bo turned to the advantage of this community. If you are convinced that it is of urgent importance to the parent state to promote the advancement of Art and Science, the soul and life of industry, you will readily appreciate the still more practicable value to this new country, which has yet to he subdued and replenished for the use of civilised man, of the Museum, Laboratory, and the othq? scientific appliances collected under this roof through the wise liberality of the Colonial Legislature. If this Government and the Institute are agreed in the desire at once to utilise this establishment by making it for New Zealand what the Ecole Oeniralc of Paris is for France ; that is the heart and centre of technical and scientific education for this colony, it Mill be easy to devise a scheme. Strictly promising young men may be selected from every province and in? stracted here, with very little additional cost to the public, in natural philosophy chemistry, and zoology, together with the theory and practice of' mining, and the elements of certain arts and manufacturing processes. It will not, I hope, be forgotten that I am now addressing you not as the Governor of the colony, but simply as a member of the governing body of the Institute. After careful enquiry and reflection, the Board has determined to submit the following principal recommendations for the consideration of the Colonial Government and Legislature : (1) That a series of lectures should he instituted in connection with this Museum, to be delivered during the winter months of the year. (2) That this scries should be of a twofold character: [general and scientific, or technical and practical. (3) That the scientific subjects should be divided into two courses ; the lectures being given on alternate days, or otherwise, as may be found most convenient.

(4) That the first course should comprise lectures on natural history, and the principles of classification as illustrated by the elementary study of zoology and botany, and the application of these branches of seicnce to physical geography and geology. (5) That the second course should be devoted to the elements of experimental science, physios, chemistry, and mineralogy. {(5) That the technical or practical courre should comprise mineralogy and chemistry. For the complete carrying into effect (f these proposals, it would be necessary {n) that additional accommodation should he obtained; (''/) that the requisite apparatus should be procured from England; and (c) that lecturers should lie provided. But, in the meantime, and until the scheme is fully established, the Governors of the Institute arc of opinion that the working of it may he left majnjy to the existing staff of the geological survey. Dr Hector, with his usual public spirit, has expressed his readiness to deliver lectures on the first, or scientific and general branch of the proposed scheme ; while he is of opinion that the services of bis assistants might be, with great advantage, so arranged that they might work in the field during the summer, and help in the course of technical and practical instruction during the winter months. Thus, without materially increasing the cost of the present establishment, the resources of the Museum and Laboratory may forthwith be rendered! available to supply that deficiency of technical and scientific education which is sq much felt in this community. It should be added that the fees received from the' students would probably bo sufficient to cover the working expenses at the central institution ; while by a judicious system ef small endowments of scholarships for natural science in the chief public schools of the several provinces, the entire colony would be enabled to share in the benefits of the scheme contemplated. I have already detained you too long. Nor, indeed, is it necessary that! should, before the present audience, point to the general want of scientific knowledge, in its simplest and most elementary forms, as the main origin of the speculative mauias by whi ;h the popular mind in new countries is frequently mjsb d. .Still less need I enlarge here on the vital impbrtsinoe ‘of diffusing blessings of a sound and practical instruction throughout all classes of the rising generation of this community. It is the character of the education placed within their reach which will enable them to continue the noble work begun by the early settlers, who encountered the hardships incident to the first colonisation of these islands ; and hereafter to determine the destiny of New Zealand by the manner in which they shall wield the unfettered powers of self-govern-ment conferred on this country by its Constitution.

In proposing a vote of thanks to the Governor, the Proraicr said :-t cannot' help responding to those remarks which hia Excellency made with reference to the practical uses to which this institution may be put by the establishment of scientific schools. I can only say—speaking on the. part of the Oovemment—that as the Government has hitherto been ready in giving tho most earnest cooperation in that direction, it will for the future continue to act in the same manner ; and I trust it will bo for us this year to cooperate in carrying out those plans which his

Excellency has just sketched, to come uni the practical object wh.cli is . « • £ £ perhaps taking too low a view of the tunc tious of Government to hunt its usefulness in that direction ; but it is to a great extent the practice of Governments, and indeed ot all people colonising during the present day, to undervalue the results of any exertions in pursuit of science, especially those of any institution or body which has not a cash balance as the chief end in view ; and thatm this country, though there will be many minds who will bo at tracted to the pursuit of science solely for its own pleasure, which can only aid in the development of higher scieutilic knowledge, every person, however low liis standard ot education may be, will estimate highly the object of schools fm science to aid us in the development of our great mineral and other resources, and to make them reveal themselves from their sources, and yield up their hidden trea* sures.