repeated parrot-like, and clothed with elegant disguises of diction. None can be more conscious than we how inferior is the learning obtained by the best summary in a periodical magazine, to that acquired by a process of careful and intelligent labour. The worst of these summaries is that they place before the reader the great results of enquiry in some particular department, without enabling him in any degree to understand the process of enquiry by which those results were obtained. The consequence is that he often fails to see the true import, and to apprehend the true value of the results themselves. It is certain also that questions of high importance in any branch of knowledge whatsoever, require a certain mental training in those who approach them, in order that their bearings may be properly understood. A person who approaches the question of the origin of species without any previous scientific knowledge, or acquaintance with the laws and analogies of material nature, is not in a fit position to form a judgment upon the subject. He will see no improbability in what to a scientific mind is mere gratuitous assumption. He will rashly denounce as absurd or impossible what to more instructed eyes appears quite within the orderly and ordinary limits of Nature's operations. A reader who is entirely untrained in any habits of close thinking or of logical reasoning, is not likely to enter with success upon a consideration of those difficult questions of theology and biblical criticism which have lately from time disturbed the public mind. Under such circumstances he is only too likely to adopt the opinion of his periodical, without having carefully enquired what is to be said on both sides.

These are the necessary and unavoidable drawbacks of our modern periodical literature, but we think that they are very much outweighed by the advantages. It is better to know something of the leading topics of the day than to know nothing. As the admission to polite and learned society has in itself a refining and elevating effect upon the minds of even the uninstructed and ignorant, so the contemplation of great and important questions may have a good effect even upon those who have not properly studied the matters to which they relate, particularly when they are set forth with that sobriety of manner and calmness of argument which is, we are happy to say, the general character of British periodical literature. And when we remember that after all, the principal end and object of magazine writing is to provide amusement, and to introduce a cheap literary luxury in the bulk of the population, we no longer complain that the monthly magazine does not impart profound learning and high scholarship, but we rather wonder that matter so light and yet of so good quality can be supplied at so low

a cost.

The apparent wonder ceases when we think of the population, the wealth, the talent of the old country, and we can understand how the Cornhill Magazine, with its ample amount of letter-press and its wellexecuted illustrations, can be sold for a shilling. But a country whose whole population consists of only a few thousands, is in a very different situation for any undertaking of this kind from one whose reading class alone may be numbered by millions, and whether such a project as that of a monthly magazine could or could not be made to succeed, was a question which experiment alone could answer. It seemed doubtful whether sufficient talent could be obtained to make the Magazine worth reading, and whether sufficient readers could be obtained to make it pay. If the thing had been looked at simply as a question of

profit, it is very probable that the undertaking would never have ceeded beyond the period of incubation. But we did not look upor precisely in this way. We had a fancy for the work, and we enter upon it as a labour of love. We desired to see a monthly magaz established in this country. We believed that it would stimulate a call forth much literary talent hitherto lying dormant; that it wor form an arena in which public questions might be discussed somewh more fully and more calmly than was possible in the columns of th daily press; and that it might supply a means by which those wh might be possessed of useful and interesting information regarding tr Colony, its history, its antiquities, or its natural features, might b enabled to lay such information before the public without the risk a expense of publishing in a separate form what was perhaps too scar in bulk or too slight in quality for such an undertaking. Such wer the feelings and the views which moved us to the execution of our pr jeet; but at the same time we did not disregard altogether the mercena point of view. Much as we desired to see this class of literature set o foot in New Zealand, we were not in a position to enter upon the tas of stimulating monthly the literary appetite of the country at a pecuniary loss to ourselves. We therefore carefully considered the prospects which appeared of the commercial success of our undertaking we came to the conclusion that they were such as to warrant the attempt, and in that faith we began. We did not expect or hope any immediate success of a striking or brilliant kind, but were convince that by steady perseverance, and constant attempts at improvement, a periodical might be established which should find an adequate suppor from the reading public of New Zealand. We knew that in a young colony material interests must needs be paramount; that the task of opening up the resources of the country must to a great extent absorb the energies of its inhabitants; and that not until the muscles of men should have accomplished that grand task, could their minds be expected to become in any great degree absorbed by literary pursuits. this knowledge, and with these expectations, we published our first number. The success which we met with was not of a kind to intoxicate our minds. Had our expectations been less sober, we might perhaps have been discouraged; but our faith in our own calculations was not shaken, and we went on. There was, however, one difficulty which we had not reckoned on, and that was the war. It may have been blindness on our part; but although we saw plainly enough that war was very probable, yet, in common with many others, we were inclined to hope that it might be indefinitely deferred, and that at all events we might have time so far to establish ourselves with the public that a Maori war should not be able to shake our footing. Undoubtedly, however, the outbreak of the war, if it could have been calculated on, would have rendered the wisdom of our enterprise very questionable in a commercial point of view, and, as it is, it has constituted one of our chief difficulties.

But we had embarked in our undertaking, and retreat was not to be thought of. The only course which appeared to be open to us was to make our periodical as good as lay in our power, and to trust to time and patience for the approval of the public. Therefore the same month that saw the war break out in this Province with a sudden violence that overturned the existing order of things, saw also our Magazine enlarged from 48 pages to 64. The result did not disappoint us.

It is

1

H

true that the whole community was agitated by the exciting topics attendant upon the outbreak of war; it is true that numbers were called away from the quiet routine of their usual life to the unaccustomd hardships of a camp; it is true that some of those on whose talents and information we had relied for contributions found their time fully occupied and their strength fully tasked by new and harassing occupations; but for all this we had no reason to repent of our persistence; month by month the circulation of the Magazine has increased, and now the completion of a volume enables us to look back with some pleasure upon the difficulties which we have encountered. Such difficulties can scarcely occur again; we now step firmly, and breathe freely. The SOUTHERN MONTHLY MAGAZINE is established.

It is far from our intention to enumerate the merits of our periodical; it is still further from our intention to discuss its faults. We know that it possesses the latter; we trust that it is not altogether destitute of the former; but it is to the judgment or the indulgence of the reader that both the one and the other must submit. All that we can do is carefully to exclude faults, and strenuously to cultivate excellences in future numbers, and this we purpose to do, relying at the same time upon the candour of the reader to admit that at this object we have always aimed, although we may not always have attained it,

We may not conclude this long talk about ourselves and our doings until we have taken the opportunity of expressing our cordial thanks to the contributors who, at a considerable cost of time and trouble, have given us gratuitous and most efficient aid. If our Magazine commands at this moment a sufficient amount of public approval to insure its success, the result is in no small degree owing to the valuable assistance which has been thus liberally afforded.

From the contemplation of the difficulties which have beset our undertaking in its outset, we feel a pleasure in looking forward a few years and seeing in imagination a flourishing and settled country, in which not only industrial pursuits will flourish, but science also, and the fine arts, and a literature far higher than anything which the popular periodical can supply. Then, we doubt not, we shall be jostled by competitors of varying degrees of excellence, but amongst them all, we feel a satisfaction in the thought, that the SOUTHERN MONTHLY MAGAZINE will be known as the pioneer of the periodical literature of New Zealand.

Page 214-After "party spirit," line 14, for the comma put a full stop. For "inasmuch" read Inasmuch. Line 15, after “infallible" erase the full stop. For "Occasional " read occasional.

Page 333-one line from bottom, for "Stormly" read sternly.

Page 349-line 19, for "istos" read istis.

Page 448-line 11, for "Sentin " read Lenten.

Page 547-line 4 from bottom, after "which" insert there were.

Page 550-line 3, after " but " insert we may.

ditto

line 17 from bottom, for "profitable ” read justifiable.

Page 566-line 3, for "him" read been.

ditto

line 16, for "still" read I tell.

Page 570-line 23, for "Phinning" read Shinning.

Page 600-line 29, for "do most " read most do.

Page 616-line 9 from bottom, for "Manchester" read Harchester.

Page 626-lines 15 and 16 from the bottom, for "were yet" read ever get. ditto

line 11 from bottom, for "consider " read confess.

Page 630-line 8 from bottom, for "1852" read 1862.

At page 512, an unfortunate mistake of the printer has caused the introduction into the body of the volume of an Army List which was intended as a mere appendix to the particular number in which it occurred.