Prefatory.

he following lecture was delivered to a large audience at the invitation of the Anti-Poverty Society, in the Wesley Hall, Pitt Street, Auckland, on August 28th, 1890. The lecture is printed as delivered, though somewhat abbreviated, and the author is conscious of many defects of style and other blemishes, which a careful revision might remove. Pressure of professional work, however, renders it impossible at present to devote any time to the task of revision, and it was the expressed wish of the audience that the lecture should be at once printed and circulated even in an unrevised form.