WELLINGTON.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 468, 20 February 1869, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(fbom oub own cobbespondejtt.) February 13. One of the pleasantest evenings I have spent for a long while I passed on Tuesday evening last, in the Wellington Museum, on the occasion of the first annual meeting of the "Wellington Philosophical Society. During the evening an annual and quarterly meeting were held, and, after these two, a conversazione enabled many who did not attend the two first, to pass a little time examining the many objects of interest exhibited that evening for the first time. At the annual meeting the report was read, and office-bearers for I the coming year were elected. The former showed that the society numbers 117 members, that its revenue last year was £133 7s Od, and its expenditure about £B4. The quarterly meeting was then held, when a fine collection of eggs and nests of native birds presented by Mr Potts of Canterbury was exhibited. A collection of recent shells and corals, many of which are new to science, which had been obtained by Capt. Fairchild of the p.s. Sturt, by dredging in various parts of the Coast, were shown, and also a series of fossils, obtained by Dr Hector in the Dun Mountain, Nelson. Some specimens obtained by Capt. Hutton in the course of a geological survey of the Thames District, and a curious article of food made from the flowering spike of the Eaupo plant, were also exhibited. A paper was read by Mr Travers on certain curiously formed stones found in abundance in the neighborhood of Lyall's Bay, explaining that these stones, resembling wedges, a-row heads, knives, &c„ and all with sharp cutting edges, were formed merely by the cutting action of the wind-driven sand. Two papers were read by Mr I. C. Crawford on the preservation of meat by the use of bisulphide of lime, and on new means of applying sulphur as a cure for blight on plants. MrSkeyalso read papers ] describing certain new metallic phosphates and arseniates which he had succeeded in producing for the first time. This concluded the quarterly meeting, and at the conversazione which followed, when ladies were present, the objects of greatest interest were the collection of etchings and sketches presented to the Museum by Bishop Monrad, and a collection of about fifty live specimens of ferns. Of these etchings little has been heard as yet, and it speaks badly for the educated taste of Wellington, that such should be the case. They are the result of many years| careful gathering during his Lordship's diplomatic career in Denmark, when he had facilities open to but few to add to his store works valuable on account of age and rarity. Most of them are originals by old masters. The value of such a gift to any country would be immense ; had it been made to any city in Europe Bishop Monrad's munificence would have been universally extolled. But here, where, owing to the few works of art which we possess for the purpose of forming of educating the taste of our young people, the gift is far enhanced in value, it is allowed to pass unnoticed. The longest notice I have seen of this collection in any New Zealand paper, is one in a recent number of the Wellington Independent occupying exactly six lines and a quarter. Perhaps the truth is that there are very few people capable of appreciating the Bishop's gift.