Introduction.

In acknowledging the compliment paid to me by the members of the Associated Literary Society of Christchurch, by electing me their President, and inviting me to address them—when I consider that we inhabit a city which may well be called a "seat of learning," and in which there are resident many gentlemen distinguished for their acquirements in literature and science—I assume that I am indebted for the honour accorded to me, rather to the public position which I have for many years held in the Colony, than to any special fitness which I can be supposed to possess for discharging the duties of the office, and for promoting the objects of the Society, by personal efforts in vindicating its usefulness, or enforcing its importance upon the attention of the community, in fixing its aims, or in directing or influencing its operations.