The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1868. NELSON LITERARY INSTITUTE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 36, 13 February 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1868. NELSON LITERARY INSTITUTE.

The annual meeting of tlie members of •tbis institution took place yesterday evening, the Provincial Solicitor, H. Adams Esq. M.P.C. occupying the chair as President, who, after some few preliminary remarks, called upon ths Honorary Secretary, Mr J. Percy, to read the Annual Report, from which it appeared that 114 volumes h&d been added to the Library since the last annual meeting, making a total of 2462 volumes, the Committee having expended £65 9s. sd. on the purchase of works of science, history and fiction, partly in LoadoD, through the instrumentality of Mr A Fletcher, who has also presented a large collection of carefully prepared skins of British birds, with some quadrupeds, to the Museum, to which large additions of other curious aad valuable specimens have also been made. The Report concluded by expressing regret that the various societies of young men in the city have not sought to avail themselves of the superior advantages they would derive from connecting themselves with the Institute, which possesses, in addition to a good library and museum, rooms for classes and other purposes, so desirable to such bodies. The Treasurer (his Honor the Superintendent) having read the balance sheet aud abstract of accounts which showed a balance of £19 18s. lid. in favor of the Institute (being the first time on which so favorable a fact had been recorded), Mr W. C. Hodgson moved, aud Mr Huddleston seconded the adoption of the Report, which was carried. Dr Irvine then proposed, and Mr Pollock eeGonded the election of Messrs Greenfield and Sydney Dick as Auditors, which was also carried. The Committee of Management were reelected, Mr W. C. Hodgson being elected in l£*u of Mr W. H. Barlow, resigned. After the transaction of some business of little public importance;

His Honor Mr Justice Richmond said that he was not certain whether he possessed a sufficient l locus standi' to justify him in addressing the meeting on the present occasion, but it had been intimated to him by a leading member of the iustitution that he might propose the establishment of a school of drawing in connection with the Institute. A proposition had been brought before him, having for its object the formation of a School of Art in Nelson, but to this he had demurred, because this agency being already in existence, he thought the Institute should take up the subject. He supposed that there were very* few present who would not recognise the necessity of cultivating art ; Nelson was not behindhand in the cultivation of \ one — music — but this was unfortunately not the case as regarded drawing. His Honor thought that the importance of the latter art was not so generally recognised as it should be, and said that he had lately read an inaugural address delivered by Mr J. Stuart Mill, as Eector of the University i of St. Andrew's, which offered splendid testimony to the advantages of cultivating a love for the Beautiful, as an essential feature in human education, a testit mouy which came with all the greater force from Puritan Scotland. He could do little more than recommend those who had not read this remarkable address, to do so at once, for it bore very strong testimoDy with reference to the deficiency of English education in this respect. It was the fashion to look upon drawing as a mere accomplishment, but he was disposed to regard it in a far higher light. All present, he presumed, were lovers of human nature and of nature's Maker, and he believed that they would agree with him that the three component parts of man's nature were, first, the intellectual faculty, and secondly, the moral faculty ; and over and above these a third faculty, the love of the Beautiful. If this assumption were correct, ex vi termini the end must be to bring out this sense of the Beautiful, and the culture of one faculty could not be neglected without injury to the others. There were many faults peculiar to the British mind, and which existed in a most exaggerated form in the colonial mind, attributable to this defect. John Stuart Mill attributed the neglect of the Beautiful to Puritanism, which had resulted in serious social and national defects. At home steps bad been taken to remedy this, and we must not lag behind in the race. He had no very large ambitions, and did not believe in the game of ' Burst Frog,' as Carlyle called it, but he thought this was a step in the right direction. He had said that the neglect of the Beautiful was attributable to Puritanism in religion, but he would have them to understand that he spoke as a Nonconformist, and as the son of one, but he must act up to the light that was in him, and in saying so, he meant no disrespect to Puritanism, which had originated in a fear of the adoption of the 'nick nackits' of the 'auld lady on the Seven Hills,' which had some ground in those days. He did not stand forth to assert that art was the legitimate end of human life, for it might reasonably be objected that the nations which were most famous in history for their cultivation of art, such as ancient Greece and Italy, were anything but desirable as copies. It was the perfect, not the partial, cultivation of art which he advocated, and to the neglect of this such deficiency was attributable. To 'condescend,' as our Scotch friends would say, to particulars, the scheme would require a competent drawiug master, and though he had a great relish for landscape painting, for which the province had already obtained a wide celebrity in the person of a well-known local artist, what wa9 really Tequired waa drawing from models and from the antique. ,

He believed that it was possible to obtain casts from the statuary in the British Museum, and these were precisely -what was wanted to educate the eye of young people, for he had himself felt the influence of the habitual, contemplation of these glorious models. His Honor said he was not ambitious of grand beginnings, and would rather imitate the system of the Schools of Design at home, and provide ourselves with such simple models as they used and as the British Museum afforded. If they copied at all, it should be from good photographs, for the ordinary routine adopted of copying was better left alone. If the pupils desired to draw landscapes, let them go into the field with some competeut master, and put their sketches in shape by the aid of the rules of perspective. The learned judge concluded by saying that the sum of his proposition was to establish a School of Art in this city ; and stated his conviction that there was a terrible hiatus in the educational systems in this colony ; the teaching of important subjects was not getting hold of the young men, and the sheep were looking up, but had none to feed them. To such institutions as the Nelson Litei'ary Institute they ought to look for pabulum of this kind, and he trusted it would not long be found wanting. After apologising for the warmth of his expressions, the learned Judge concluded his able and eloquent address, which was listened to with the most marked attention by the members present. Dr Irvine rose to express the gratification with which he, in common with the other members of the Institute, had heard the Judge's remarks, and he congratulated the community on their possessing among them a man of such broad views and varied attainments as his Honor, expressing his hope that he would give them another opportunity of profiting by his talents and experience. With reference to the eloquent testimony of John Stuart Mill, '• the prince of utilitarian philosophers," as the Judge had styled him, in behalf of the cultivation of the Beautiful, he observed that this had probably arisen from that very fact, for he had rightly perceived that the cultivation of art subserved one of the highest modes of utility. Dr. Irvine suggested that not only a School of Art, but also a Gallery might be comnaeuced, to which the Government might contribute, and much might be done towards the scheme in other ways. The President, on behalf of the Committee, thanked the Judge for the trouble he had taken in bringing the proposal before the meeting, which it would do its best to carry out, and after some discussion, in which his Honor the Superintendent, Mr Hunter Brown, Mr W. C. Hodgson, and the Honorary Secretary took part, and which had reference to the difficulties attending the realisation of the Judge's proposition through the nonpreparedness of the younger members of the community for such instruction, and to the desirability of teaching drawing in the Government Schools, the subject dropped, and the meeting was brought to a conclusion.