TECHNICAL SCIENCE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1775, 28 October 1879, Page 3

TECHNICAL SCIENCE IN NEW ZEALAND.

[f Scientific American.”] The “ Scientific American ” has been asked to solicit the kind offices of Amerioan inventors, manufacturers, and other friends of industrial education on behalf of a worthy institution in far away New Zealand. To provide “ all classes and denominations” of the New Zealand population with facilities for pursuing a regular and liberal course of education, Canterbury College has been established at Christchurch, the principal town of the province of Canterbury, and is now in good working condition. In connection with this College there has been founded a scientific museum, housed in a handsome stone building erected at a cost of upward of 100,000d015., and comprising a valuable collection of specimens of natural history, and type collections of minerals and fossils. An effort is being made to establish in this museum a department of technical science, for which contributions of models of machinery, implements, and the like are now solicited. The reception of such contributions, and their shipment to New Zealand (freight charges to be paid there), will be be undertaken by tho publishers of this paper. So much for tho message committed to us. A word or two with respect to the reasons why the request should be cheerfully and abundantly met. New Zealand is one of tho most worthy and promising of the younger members of the Greater Britain made up of all the English speaking countries of the globe. As the youngest, too, among the rising nations allied to us by blood, and bound to us by rapidly strengthening commercial tios, New Zealand is in every way deserving of all the educational assistance wo can give her ; and it can bo safely promised that her people will be duly grateful for anything we may do in this.

way. There is a lower (possibly to some a men* } cogent) reason why this request should 1 , e granted ; it will pay commercially. Aires dy Now Zealand is one of tho most invltay j of foreign markets for American manufact arod products; and there is no way by which American manufacturers can place their machines, implements, and other ware 3 more effectually before the New Zealand o rs than by having them thus favorably plan e d on perpetual exhibition at the chief cent.ro of intelligence in the colony. It is not yet forty ’years the first white settlors landed in Nev/ Zealand, and already the population nuntibers something like half a million of wide awake, active, and intelligent English people. The islands have an area of over 100,000 square miles ; a trifle less than that of Groat; Britain and Ireland, and something more than twice that of the State of Now York. About 12,000,000 acres arc fit for agriculture 5 50,000,000 acres are

suitable for pasturage ; 20,000,000 are forest lands. The climate is much like that of England, hut more equable. There is more sunshine arid a smaller range of temperature. The annual mean for the North Island is 57deg., that of the South Island is 52deg. The mean annual temperature of London and New York is 51deg. The country is rich in minerals, and its resources are being developed rapidly. In 1876 the foreign commerce of New Zealand was equal to that of Norway. It was more than that of any of the South American states except Brazil ; more than that of any African states except Egypt and Algeria; greater than that of Japan ; and was exceeded in Asia only by China, Java, and the Straits Settlements. It was exceeded in Australasia only by Victoria and New South Wales. In 1875 its trade with the United States exceeded 10,000,000d015. In 1876 the colony had 600 miles of rajlway, and in 1878 something like 1000 miles. In 1875 there were in operation over 3000 miles of telegraph lines, with a mileage of telegroph wire exceeding 7000 miles. These are the latest statistics at hand ; and the rate of progress is such that they must be largely increased to bring them up to the probable figures required to indicate the present condition of the colony. It is_ to a country possessing such notable capacities for commercial developments, and offering so many inducements for the cultivation of friendly relations, that the asked for models and specimens of machinery and industrial appliances are to go, to be placed on view, as already said, under the most favorable conditions possible; In very many instances doubtless the most efficient as well as most economical representation to send will be a perfect machine or implement of regular make. The photographs of the museum rooms—which may be seen at this office by any one who is interested—show an abundance of space for the proper display of contributions; and as the museum is a place of popular resort not only for the people of Christchurch, but for all visitors to that capital, a more attractive mode of exhibiting matters suitable for the markets of the colony could not bo devised. We sincerely trust that our energetic, generous, and far-seeing manufacturers will take the matter in hand earnestly, and that while Canterbury College is enriched by specimens of high educational value, the industries of the United States will have in them a full and honorable presentation before the students of the institution and the public at large.

It may properly be suggested hero that contributors should affix to each specimen a special tablet bearing the inscription—“ Presented to the Technological Collection of Canterbury College Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand, by, etc., etc.,” giving the donor’s name and post office address,