APPENDIX V. (p. 188.)
ADDRESS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, TO THE GEOLOGIST OF THE NOVARA.
Dr. Hochstetter,
On the conclusion of your Geological Examination of a large and most interesting portion of this province of New Zealand, we—the assembled inhabitants of Auckland, representing every section of the community, and for the most part intimately connected with the Agriculture and Commerce of the province—desire to express our admiration of the eminently scientific manner and unwearied activity with which you have conducted your researches into the Geological Formations and Mineral Resources of Auckland. We have also to thank you for the valuable information upon these objects, which you have already placed in our possession in the public lecture delivered by you in this hall on the 24th of June, and in the reports you have forwarded to the General and Provincial Governments.
The report of a member of the Novara Expedition, on the physical characteristics of this portion of New Zealand—of which so little has hitherto been known—will be acknowledged in Europe as both impartial and authentic.
To us, as a community, the information contained in that report and the maps you have constructed, together with those additional details we hope to receive from you after your return to Europe, will be of essential service in a material point of view. We also desire to convey to you our sense of the impartiality of your reports, which, whilst they lay open to our view those resources of the country that will eventually aid to its wealth and its general prosperity, in no way exaggerate their value or tend to lead to extravagant ideas or speculations that might only result in disappointment.
Arriving in Auckland a stranger, upon whose sympathies we had no claim, you have exerted all your energies to condense the results of your scientific exploration into practical forms, for the benefit of the people
of the foreign country you visited for purely scientific purposes, or for the special advantage of your own country.
On all these accounts we feel that our warmest thanks are due to you for your disinterested exertions for the promotion of our welfare. As an enduring testimony thereof, we request the acceptance of this purse, the contents of which we beg you will devote to the purchase of some piece of plate that we trust may be regarded by your family and your countrymen, not only as a tribute of respect to your varied talents, but as a well-merited memento of the grateful acknowledgment by the people of the province of Auckland of the eminent scientific and practical services rendered to them by you.