Abstract
PROBABLY none of our colonies have done so much for the promotion of the higher interests of their people as New Zealand; in this respect, indeed, it will compare favourably with almost any other country in the world. Its university is wonderfully complete and well organised; all the faculties are well represented; science, as well as literature, has its right place in the curriculum; the best men are tempted to go out as professors from the old country; and laboratory research is fairly encouraged. Quite recently we referred to a proposed system of education, which in its comprehensiveness and completeness will hold its own with any national system of education in Europe. The New Zealand Institute, again, is probably one of the best organised, and for its purpose, among the most efficient scientific bodies to be found anywhere. It is virtually a Government institution, and was organised by a special Act in 1867. It seems to bear the same relation to its incorporated societies that a university does to its affiliated colleges; it is independent of these societies, which must comply with certain rules imposed upon them by the Institute, and yet without these societies its occupation would seem to be gone. One part of its duty is the publication of summaries of the Proceedings of the societies, and of such papers and records in full as the Institute may deem of permanent scientific value. The societies at present incorporated with the Institute are the Wellington Philosophical Society, the Auckland Institute, the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, the Otago Institute, the Westland Institute, and the Hawkes Bay Philosophical Institute. It must be gratifying in the highest degree to those who have the best interests of New Zealand at heart to find a love for culture so widespread as the existence of these societies indicate. And it must be remembered that, as a condition of incorporation with the Institute, each society must come up to a certain standard of membership and contribute a considerable sum yearly to the promotion of science, art, and literature, which is the aim of the Institute.
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The New Zealand Institute . Nature 22, 461–462 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022461b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022461b0