The Royal Society of New Zealand, founded in 1867 as the New Zealand Institute, is the senior scientific organisation in the Dominion. A statutory body for the promotion of science, it performs in New Zealand the functions of an academy of sciences. The Society acts for scientists as a whole, independent of occupational or disciplinary affiliations, in offering the experience and advice of its members to Government on national problems, in representing New Zealand science internationally, and in serving New Zealand scientists in such ways as publication of research, maintenance of a library, and the administration of research grants and memorial awards.
The New Zealand Institute Act of 1867 established “an Institute for the advancement of Science and Art in New Zealand”. The Institute was a corporate body consisting of a board of governors and the members of societies in various parts of the colony that were subsequently incorporated under the Act. The Act stated that the Institute “shall comprise a public museum, laboratory, and public library” in Wellington, and it authorised the Governor to appoint persons to superintend and carry out a geological survey. The Colonial Museum, then recently established for the collections of the Geological Survey, was granted to the Institute. Dr J. Hector (later, Sir James) was appointed Director of the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey and Manager of the Institute; he discharged these duties until his retirement in 1903. The incorporated societies, at first comprising the Auckland Institute, Wellington Philosophical Society, Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, and Westland Naturalists' and Acclimatization Society, later included the Otago Institute and similar bodies founded in other centres for promotion of art and science. The Institute received a statutory grant and published annually a volume containing papers read before the incorporated societies, the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute (Vol. 1, 1869). An Act to reconstitute the New Zealand Institute, passed in 1903, sundered the three institutions that had grown under Hector's management and reconstituted the New Zealand Institute as an independent organisation with an elected president and a board of governors on which members appointed by the incorporated societies were in the majority. In 1903, by gracious approval of His Majesty King George V, the Institute was reconstituted as the Royal Society of New Zealand, with a council including the Minister in Charge of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, four Government nominees, and a majority of councillors appointed by member bodies.
As at present constituted, the Royal Society of New Zealand is a federation of 10 autonomous societies, nine of which are regional bodies promoting general science (Auckland Institute, and the Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, Waikato, Hawke's Bay, Rotorua, Nelson, and Southland branches of the Royal Society of New Zealand); the tenth member body is the Geological Society of New Zealand. The members of these societies are members of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Besides their 14 representatives, the Council comprises the Minister (ex officio), four Government representatives, two representatives of the Society's Fellows, a co-opted member, the honorary treasurer, the president and two vice-presidents (elected by Council), and the immediate past president. The Society employs a full-time secretary and a library assistant. Meetings of Council are held in May and November, and a standing committee of Wellington councillors meets monthly. The Society receives an annual grant from Government and other income from member bodies, sale of publications, and trust funds.
The functions of the Society are local, national, and international.
Local responsibilities are met by the activities of regional branches in supporting museums, libraries, or observatories, holding meetings for delivery of lectures, and maintaining a watching brief over matters of scientific interest locally. Branches in the larger centres take turns in organising the triennial Science Congress of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
National responsibilities include the publication of the Society's Transactions, in four series since 1961 (General, Zoology, Botany, Geology), and of Bulletins, major works too large for inclusion in the Transactions. The library of the Rcyal Society of New Zealand, built up by exchange, consists of some 30,000 volumes, with an annual increment of 1,500 items. It contains many valuable long runs of scientific periodicals and constitutes a bibliographic tool for all New Zealand research workers, available through interloan.
High standards in research are encouraged by the election of New Zealand scientists of high achievement to the fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand, a statutory and honorary recognition of distinction for life which entitles the fellows (limited to 100) to use the letters F.R.S.N.Z.
The Society administers memorial trust funds providing for awards for scientific research, including the Hector and Hutton medals and various grants.
The Hector Memorial Research Fund, in memory of the late Sir James Hector, is in the form of a bronze medal awarded annually, in rotation, for the following subjects: (a) botany, (b) chemistry, (c) ethnology, (d) geology, (e) physics (including mathematics and astronomy), (f) zoology. The first award in 1912 was to L. Cockayne followed by Sir Thomas Easterfield, Elsdon Best, P. Marshall, Lord Rutherford, and C. Chilton for outstanding work in subjects in the order named. These were followed by T. F. Cheeseman, P. W. Robertson, S. Percy Smith,. R. Speight, C. Coleridge Farr, and G. V. Hudson. This is a prized award which has been given to most of New Zealand's eminent scientists.
The Hutton Memorial Medal is an award of a bronze medal, usually at intervals of three years, for scientific work of great merit bearing on New Zealand zoology, botany, or geology. In addition, the Council may make grants from the accrued interest of the fund to any person, society, or committee. This award is in honour of Captain Wollaston Hutton. It was awarded first, in 1911, to Sir William Benham, then to L. Cockayne, P. Marshall, J. E. Holloway, J. A. Thomson, C. Chilton, and G. V. Hudson, all outstanding for work in one of these three subjects.
Other awards include the Hamilton Memorial Prize which is provided from money subscribed in memory of the late Augustus Hamilton, and is for the encouragement of beginners in pure scientific research in New Zealand. It is awarded at three-yearly intervals for original work and papers published within five years of first investigations. The Sidey Memorial was established by the collection of shilling contributions to commemorate the work of Sir T. K. Sidey, which led to the passing of the Summer Time Act of 1927. This award is for the promotion of scientific research into the study of light and other solar radiations in connection with human welfare. The sum of £100 may be awarded to a person making a valuable contribution into such study. In 1933 the first award was to Lord Rutherford with a special award to G. V. Hudson. Government research grants may be made from funds available to the Society to defray cost of apparatus, material, and expenses for research workers, such apparatus to remain the property of the Society. Other grants are those from the Mappin Trust (gift of Sir Frank Crossley Mappin) for research on problems in connection with New Zealand plants, especially diseases of plants; the Leonard Cockayne Memorial Fund provides an award to encourage botanical research, from funds subscribed in memory of this great botanist; and the E. R. Cooper Memorial is a recent award for research in the fields of physics and engineering.
The Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand invites and expresses the views of its fellows, members, and committees on scientific problems of national importance. Its sectional committees report on the state and needs of the several disciplines. Ad hoc committees have dealt with such topics as fuel and power, earthquake risk, conservation, Antarctic research, the National Research Council Bill, etc. It contributes scientific experience by nominating representatives on many national bodies, such as the Board of Trustees of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum, the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, Ross Dependency Research Committee, National Parks Authority, National Historic Places Trust, Medical Research Council, UNESCO Technical Subcommission for Science, and Carter Observatory Board. The Society initiates and sponsors the Triennial New Zealand Science Congress, in which 28 different scientific societies participate, and has arranged publication of their proceedings.
International functions of the Royal Society include liaison with numerous scientific academies overseas. Leading overseas scientists are elected honorary members of the Society. The Royal Society of New Zealand is the adhering body for the International Council of Scientific Unions, is itself a member of several international unions and of the Scientific Committees for Antarctic Research and for Oceanic Research, and is the New Zealand participating body in the Pacific Science Association, appointing a permanent representative to the Pacific Science Council. In 1949 the Society was responsible for organising the Seventh Pacific Science Congress, held in New Zealand, and for publishing its proceedings. Close contact is maintained with the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science; meetings were held in New Zealand in 1936 and 1957. New Zealand representation is arranged and, to some degree, supported at international congresses in many sciences, general assemblies of international unions, and scientific celebrations, such as the Tercentenary of the Royal Society of London, and the Bicentenary of Princeton University.
The Royal Society of New Zealand functions as nominating body for a number of international prizes, fellowships, and bursaries, and the like.
The office and library of the Society are situated in the Kirk Building, Victoria University of Wellington.
by Charles Alexander Fleming, O.B.E., B.A., D.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Chief Paleontologist, New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.
(with date of election)
W. E. Adams (1959)
*R. S. Allan (1940)
K. R. Allen (1961)
*Sir Gilbert Archey (1932)
H. O. Askew (1939)
N. F. Barber (1964)
M. A. F. Barnett (1947)
C. R. Barnicoat (1961)
L. Bastings (1953)
Elizabeth Batham (1962)
G. T. S. Baylis (1961)
E. Beaglehole (1947)
F. D.. Beilschowsky (1961)
M. E. Bell (1952)
E. G. Bollard (1964)
*L. H. Briggs (1942)
D. Browne (1963)
G. W. Butler (1965)
*F. R. Callaghan (1961)
E. E. Chamberlain (1959)
D. S. Coombs (1962)
W. Cottier (1961)
Sir Charles Cotton (1921)
I. J. Cunningham (1963)
K. M. Curtis (1936)
R. K. Dell (1961)
*J. K. Dixon (1961)
J. N. Dodd (1964)
R. S. Duff (1952)
Sir John Eccles (1950)
N. L. Edson (1948)
C. D. Ellyett (1961)
*R. A. Falla (1941)
H. B. Fell (1960)
G. J. Fergusson (1961)
J. F. Filmer (1961)
*C. A. Fleming (1952)
H. G. Forder (1947)
R. R. Forster (1961)
O. H. Frankel (1948)
J. F. Gabites (1962)
M. Gage (1961)
E. J. Godley (1965)
F. S. Gourlay (1961)
L. I. Grange (1942)
W. M. Hamilton (1962)
E. A. Hodgson (1961)
J. T. Holloway (1959)
N. de B. Hornibrook (1963)
C. O. Hutton (1945)
A. T. Johns (1964)
E. B. Kidson (1963)
G. A. Knox (1963)
D. F. Lawden (1962)
C. R. Laws (1950)
A. W. Liley (1965)
A. R. Lillie (1961)
F. J. Llewellyn (1964)
D. B. Macleod (1935)
B. J. Marples (1953)
*Sir Ernest Marsden (1922)
J. Marwick (1935)
R. E. F. Matthews (1962)
F. H. McDowall (1962)
A. G. McLellan (1962)
J. A. R. Miles (1962)
*D. Miller (1931)
L. B. Moore (1947)
M. Ongley (1948)
J. Packer (1964)
W. R. Philipson (1963)
R. O. Piddington (1963)
A. L. Poole (1962)
A. W. B. Powell (1940)
M. C. Probine (1964)
T. A. Rafter (1961)
L. R. Richardson (1959)
L. E. Richdale (1955)
Sir Theodore Rigg (1932)
Sir Douglas Robb (1961)
E. I. Robertson (1963)
P. W. Robertson (1950)
J. R. Robinson (1964)
J. T. Salmon (1949)
E. G. Sayers (1961)
F. B. Shorland (1951)
H. D. Skinner (1927)
L. M. Cranwell Smith (1944)
F. G. Soper (1949)
R. P. Suggate (1963)
N. H. Taylor (1956)
F. J. Turner (1938)
Sir John Walsh (1961)
H. W. Wellman (1954)
H. R. Whitehead (1950)
R. W. Willett (1961)
K. A. Wodzicki (1962)
*Past president