WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4970, 26 February 1877, Page 2

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

The animal meeting of- this society was held on Saturday evening in the lecture-ball of the Museum, Professor Kirk, IVL.S., in, the chair. The Secretaey (Mr. Gore) read the minutes, which were duly confirmed. HEW MEMBERS. The following list of new members was read :—Mr. Justice Richmond, Messrs. .Tames Hurst, W. Johnston, G. W. Williams, E. Stafford. ANNUAL REPORT. The following report was read : " Eleven general meetings have taken place since the last report was presented, all of which have been held in this lecture hall, kindly placed at the disposal of the society for this purpose by the Governors of the New Zealand Institute. "The Council feels that it cannot but congratulate the society on its steady progress and continued success, as indicated by the increase in the number of its members, by the full attendance at the evening meetings, and especially by the large number of interesting papers read during the past year, many of them exciting long and instructive discussions, in consequence of which the proceedings of the society during the above period are fuller and more lengthy than for any previous year. " Sixty-five papers and communications have been read. " The society's library has also been increased very considerably during the year, by the addition'of 166 volumes purchased for the society by Dr. Hector. Besides these, a large collection of pamphlets and scientific works of various kinds have been presented by Dr. Hooker, C. 8., of Kew, through Dr. Hector. The society has also obtained very complete sets of mounted natural science diagrams, as well as* relievo maps of various countries. " These additions include a number of valuable books of reference, which have been inquired for by members, especially those engaged in the study of the various branches of the natural history of New Zealand. " The Council desires to record its appreciation of the valuable .services rendered; by Dr. Hector in this and other matters affecting the welfare of the society. "A complete list of the additions to the society's library will be found attached to. this report, but the whole of the books belonging to the society will shortly appear in a catalogue now in course of preparation, which will correspond with the arrangement of the volumes on the shelves in, the .library, thereby rendering it easy for members to find the particular books they require without loss of time. " The statement of accounts for the past year, prepared by the treasurer, now submitted, shows that at the present time there is a balance in the bank to the credit of the society of £9O lis. 6d. - " The thanks of the society are due to the following institutions for publications received as donations :—Smithsonian Institute, Harvard College, Royal Society of Tasmania, "United States Geological Survey." The statement of accounts attached showed that the year had been commenced with a balance in hand of £lOl os. 4d., which, with the subscriptions for the year, together with back subscriptions for two or three years, &c, brought up the total available revenue to £259 Bs. 4d. The expenditure had been : Advertising, £2l Bs. 9d.; purchase of books, &c.,£65165. 2d.; printing and binding, £19105..; contribution to New Zealand Institute, £3l 10s.; honorarium to secretary and treasurer, £2O; contingencies, gas, &c, £lo'l4s. lid.; balance in hand, £9O lis. 6d. The report and balance-sheet were adopted nem. dia. ELECTION OP OFFICE-BEARERS.

Before proceeding to the election of officebearers, Mr. Maktell moved an alteration in the rules, to make the election of president, annual, instead of biennial, as it was at present. —Agreed to. The following office-bearers were then appointed:—President—Mr. W. T. L. Travers ; vice-presidents—Messrs. Kirk and Carruthers; council—Dr. Bulkr, C.M.G., Dr. Hector, Dr.

Newman, Messrs. Graham, Mantell, Crawford and Marten ; secretary—Mr. Gore ; auditor Mr. Arthur Baker.

This concluded the business of the annual meeting, and the rest of the evening .was devoted to the reading of papers. NEW ZEALAND COFFEE. Mr. Crawford read a paper on New Zealand coffee (taupata coprosma a baueriana) and exhibited specimens of the berries and of the ground coffee. He claimed for it the essential qualities of a pleasant beverage, and thought its commercial value should attract more attention, as the plant could be cultivated in any quantities. v Mr. Mantell mentioned that he had growing in his garden a plant of the same name • but its berries were much smaller, and there were other particulars in which it differed from the plant referred to by Mr. Crawford. ' It came from the Bay of Plenty. , The Chairman said he had been unaware up to the present time that there was a difference in the plants. Thomson's system of sukvey foe new ZEALAND. This was a paper by Mr. W. T. L. Travers being a criticism from a legal standpoint of the system of survey for New Zealand proposed by Mr. Thomson, the Surveyor-General as exptained in a paper.read before the society in September last. Having premised that his own knowledge of the practice of surveying was limited, and that his object was principally to elicit further discussion, he referred to the necessity of accuracy in the description of the parcels in conveyances of land ; for not merely lawyers, but almost every intelligent person who had had any practical acquaintance with our system of dealing with land as a marketable property, were more or less aware of the difficulties which, resulted from error on this point. The importance of accuracy in description was fully recognised in connection with the system of dealing with land under the Land Transfer Acts in force in the colony, in which mere verbal descriptions were as much as possible avoided in favor of reference to plana prepared by duly qualified and certificated surveyors. And the certainty that before many years have passed, all the land in the colony belonging to private individuals would be brought within the provisions of these Acts, rendered it imperative that the most reliable system of surveying, known to science should be used in connection with alienations by the Crown, as well as with subsequent subdivisions of the land so alienated. He then referred to the leading features of Major Palmer's report to show that the surveys in every part of the colony had more or less been in a hopeless state of confusion, the worstinstancesoccurring in Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Nelson, Marlborough, and Canterbury ; Otago and Wellington presenting the most favorable examples of the colony's surveys. The systems adopted by Mr. Thomson in Otago and Mr. Jackson in Wellington materially differed, and Mr. Travers pointed out that while Major Palmer said of Mr. Thomson's work in Otago " that it might be considered fair, accurate," showing that as'an expedient for promoting rapid and correct land sales and preventing waste it had answered well, still he had not recommended the adoption of the system as a general one throughout the colony. On the contrary he had said, "It is in my opinion perfectly clear that whatever be the means introduced for systematising and carrying on future detail surveys and revising old ones, the basis of all such reform must be a general triangulation of the colony. ... Triangulation, moreover, is cheap, because it ensures the desired accuracy and saves the cutting of. lines; the country is favorable for it." Mr. Travers further pointed out that Major Palmer estimated the total cost of completing the surveys of the colony at £IOO,OOO, and the time at ten years only, figures which differed materially from those suggested by Mr. Thomson, and which, so far as he (Mr. Travers) was able to judge, were much more reasonable. In questioning the adaptability of Mr. Thomson's system to the colony as a whole, Mr. Travers premised that where a country practically admitted of the bearings of all the sectional lines being chained, a method of survey might be adopted which would not be applicable where neither of these operations could be performed, and therefore- that - a system might fairly be used as an expe* dient for the rapid settlement of an open and moderately hilly country, which would In no degree answer for a. country of a different • aspect. He pointed out that those portions of Otago which, had -been surveyed under Mr. Thomson's system consisted chiefly of open and undulating or moderately hilly lands, the procesc of surveying which was easy as compared to that of surveying the densely wooded tracts which for the most part prevailed in the other parts of the colony, and especially in the North Island. Otago, therefore, he contended, did not furnish for the purposes of a system of survey, either as regards cost or accuracy, a fair example of what could be accomplished for New Zealand as a whole. He then discussed the liability to error, and the checks upon and opportunities of . discovering errors, of the rival systems, and drew conclusions unfavorable to the meridian circuit system. Mr. Travers then alluded at some length to the history of conveyancing, showing that from the very first the greatest care was taken in describing alienations and private subdivisions, and that the most accurate way of describing land was by reference to well authenticated and accurate plans ; and urging that if. the land transfer system of New Zealand were to produce its best, fruits, the condition precedent must be the adoption of the most effectual and scientific system of surveys. He concluded by remarking that it was a rule in societies such as that which he was addressing not to discuss political questions, but the complete enforcement of such. a rule would neces-1 sarily have excluded even such a paper as that, which was of course - never intended. It was not even, as he conceived, a violation of that rule on -his -part to observe that those, who were engaged in the work of administering the government of the colony ought not to permit anything-in the nature of experiments to be made in matters of vital importance to the community ; and that when they were in possession of,-and have in effect adopted, the well considered views of an eminent man upon any matter, under their control, more especially when those views were in accordance with systems used in countries of advanced civilisation, : they are bound to give effect to those views in preference to any expedient, however practical, unless circumstances of a very exceptional character happen to justify its temporary adoption. ' Dr. Hector spoke ,on the subject of the degree of accuracy obtained by the Americans with refined instruments.

Dr. Newman said it appeard to him that Mr. Travera had merely told them what somebody else had told him, and he did not think that much reliance was to be placed on secondhand impressions when they were in conflict with the opinions of one who had made surveying in the colony a life study. He confessed he knew more about medicine than he did about • surveying, and he had no doubt that Mr; Travers was a better lawyer than a surveyor; but he might say that having once been in company with a surveyor, Mr. Thomson's system had been explained to him as being much the better of the two, as by the Otago* system land in particular localities could be surveyed at once without waiting for the surveyor to reach them. Thus, under the system followed in Wellington, presuming the base line to be at Wellington city, the Wairarapa plain could not b 4 reached until theKimutaka had been surveyed, a wholly unnecessary work in the mean time. He referred to a case reported in the Times the previous week, in which, a .man who had purchased and paid for land ,at Featherston was unable to improve or fence the spot on which he was located, for fear that he was not on the land he had bought. Under Mr. Thorn. son'B system such a difficulty would have been obviated in a very short time. Mr. Tbaveks pointed out that he_ had not professed to be original on the subject. He had merely collected the opinions of eminent men conversant with the subject, and set them np against that of Mr. Thomson, in order that discussion might follow. ANEMOMETBY. A very interesting paper on Anemometry, Vy Mr. Rous-Mabten, was lead. The ebjtt*'

of the paper was to show that the present cot structionof these instruments, and especial , those of the larger size, is evidently frequent! liable to excessive regibtration, as they carr .the impetus given them by any sudden ie crease oi wind beyond the time the cans of such additional impetus has lasted, and h cited cases in which this excess was most ap parent Mr. Marten gave the result of hi own experience when in charge of the meteorc logical observatory in Southland, where h compared several anemometers together, an also the results of a very close investigate carried on in England by two eminent me teorologists, who compared various patterns o anemometers with a standard. The conclu sion' at which Mr. Marten had arrived at was that the evidence is entirely in favor of th instruments with the lightest possible construe tion of caps and arm's being those likely t( wive the most authentic recoid. ° Dr. Hectok offered a few remarks on tn< subiect.

OTHER FAMSKS. The time having now arrived -for the meeting to break up, the followng papers were taken as read in order that they might appear in the " Transactions :-On implements of the Morion, Dr. Hector; on Moa remains, Dr. Hector; on the introdnction of the Polecat into New Zealand, Dr. Buller.; on a Marine Spider, C. H. Robson ; Descriptions of new plants, by T. Kirk, i> X.S.; on a new species of Filulana, by T. Kirk, FL S • an enumeration of the Phanogamic plants and ferns recently added to the New Zealand Flora, with critical and geographical notes, by T. Kirk, F.L.S. Chemical pipers by Mr. Skey: 1. On Kichmondite, a new Bilver ore, being a variety of Tetrahedite in which lead is substituted for copper ; 2. On a new durable writing ink, which, being alkaline, does not corrode pen or paper ; 3. Analysis of the waters from fifteen of the geyser springs in the Kotomahana district of New Zealand ; 4. On a new and very delicate test for detecting the presence in mixed solutions of alkaloids and albuminoids. This discovery, made during the investigation of Winslow s Soothing Syrup, will be of great practical advantage in performing toxological and medical analyses. 5. Analysis of the patent drug known as "Winslow's Soothing Syrup," showing the proportion of morphine it contains ; 6. On a form of iron garnet, which has on several occasion? been mistaken for tin stone by prospectors. The above are submitted to the society by permission of the director.