DR HECTOR'S ADDRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 4241, 29 September 1876, Page 4

DR HECTOR'S ADDRESS.

At a recent meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, Dr Hector gave an account of his trip to England, and of its results from a scientific point of view. He had succeeded in making some valuale exchanges with the British Museum. Only part of the collections so obtained reached the Colony, but there were twelve or four- | teen large cases now on their way out. The fossils tnken home by him had been carefully studied and classified by Professor Etheridge, who was permitted by Professor Ramsay] of the School of Mines, to devote a considerable amount of time to.this work. Theresuits would be very valuable, as placing the researches of the geological survey, in this respect, on a thoroughly sound and- reliable basis. In the next place he had visited all the museums where he could obtain material for ethnological investigation, as he considered that this would be very interesting as bearing on the creation of the origin of the Maori race. He had endeavored to interest ethnologists at Home in this question, and the practical outcome had been the valuable treatise by Mr Vaux, which appeared in the last year's volume of 'Transactions of the New Zcal.md Institute.' He had occupied one of the rooms in Westminster Chambers, where he opened and examined a large number of caseß sent to him for that purpose by the British Museum authorities. Among the rest, he had opened a hermetically sealed case, supposed to have been brought Home by Captain Cook after one of his voyages to New Zealand, and subsequently handed over to the Museum by the Admiralty. This case contained native weapons and carvings • but the most interesting of these was a taiaha with a bunch of feathers at the top, among which he detected what appeared to be a moa's feather. This specimen was afterwards submitted to Mr Sharpe, Professor Newton, and Mr Sclater, all of whom pronounced it the feather of a struthious bird, more allied, in character to the ostrich than the emu. There was also a common pawa shell fishhook, to which were attached some feathers with a distinct after-plume a character not possessed by any existing bird. The evidence thus obtained he considered very valuable, as showing that the moa existed down to the period when these comparatively modern imj>lements were in use by the Maoris. In addition to ransacking museums for everything of local interest, he had attended the various meetings of learned societies, and the annual gatherings of the British Association, where he had done all in his power to promote a feeling of interestin th e Colony, and to make known its great natural resources. Juut as he was preparing to leave England he received instructions from the Government to visit America for tho purpose of representing the Colony at the Philadelphia Exhibition. He characterised this as tho most wonderful industrial collection the world had ever seen, occupying in space an area about equal to Hyde Park, and embracing exhibits in such number and variety that it would take months even to get a cursory glance at them. The Agricultural Hall alone was a which would attract visitors from all parts of the globe, and was a perfect marvel of what could be accomplished in the way of national exhibitions.