Though we cannot but congratulate you upon your approaching return to your country and your family, we have strong personal reasons
for looking upon it with regret. We feel that it has been no light or trifling advantage to have had among us one of that small class of men who conduct the great national expeditions by which the benefits of science are distributed over the world.
We know that such an one comes invested with the highest possible authority to speak decidedly on the subjects of his investigations, and are sure that we may place the most implicit confidence in his statements. It is the great characteristic of such scientific pursuits as you are engaged in, that though on the one hand they are joined to the deepest and inmost principles of nature, on the other they are linked to the daily wants and commonest necessities of life. We believe therefore that your visit here will not be barren of practical results. We believe that it will give us both a desire to develope, as far as possible, our share of the gifts of nature, and a knowledge how we may best do this.
We know that we have had no special claims on you for the interest you have taken in our welfare. The advantages which we have derived from it are, however, of such a kind that both those who give and those who receive may be proud of. We have had many opportunities of noticing how earnestly you pursue knowledge for its own sake, and are glad to find that those who do so are the most ready to employ for the benefit of others what they have acquired themselves. You have done this in our case with considerable personal exertion and discomfort, which have been cheerfully encountered by your diligence and activity.
We do not wish to do more than allude to considerations of a personal kind. But we must express our appreciation of your courteous and kind behaviour towards us, and assure you that few men could have been among us for so short a time and have acquired so much of the character of a personal friend.
We beg your acceptance of the accompanying Testimonial, the product of our Gold-fields, and we ask you to apply it to the purchase of a piece of plate, which may help to keep us in your remembrance, and on which we ask you to place the following inscription:—
"Presented to Dr. Ferdinand Hochstetter, Geologist to the Imperial Royal Austrian Scientific Expedition in the frigate Novara, by the inhabitants of the Province of Nelson, New Zealand, as a record of their appreciation of the great benefits conferred upon them and the Colony
by his frank communication of the results of his zealous and able researches into the geological character and mineral resources of the Province."
We earnestly hope that all good may go with you on your return to Europe, and that after a pleasant and speedy voyage you may reach in safety your home and friends. And with this wish we bid you heartily "Farewell."
Signed on behalf of the inhabitants of Nelson: