2 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



whom subsequently retired, four Members have resigned, and 

 death has deprived the Society of one of the Members resident in 

 Tasmania. 



Cliarles Edward Beddome died at Hobart on September 1st, 

 1898, aged 62 years. He joined the Indian Navy as a lad, and 

 had attained the rank of lieutenant when this branch of the 

 service was abolished. Mr. Beddome subsequently emigrated to 

 Queensland, and for some time filled the position of Police Magis- 

 trate at Thursday Island, and elsewhere. Still later, he retired 

 from the Government service, and turned his attention for some 

 years to pastoral pursuits in the Port Curtis district, where he 

 became owner of a cattle station. Finally he removed to Tas- 

 mania, where he spent the remainder of his life. 



Mr. Beddome, like his brother, Colonel R. H. Beddome, well 

 known for his researches on the Land Mollusca of India, was an 

 ardent concholoo;ist. In Tasmania he dredged and collected 

 assiduously. The importance of his own collection was enhanced 

 by his acquisition of one formed by Mr. "VV. Legrand containing 

 the series studied by the late Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods. His 

 papers, which ai*e not numerous, are to be found either in the 

 Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania or in 

 the Proceedings of this Society. Mr. Beddome was elected a 

 member of the Society in October, 1880. 



The Proceedings for 1898 form a volume of 838 pages, illus- 

 trated with thirty-three plates, and comprising forty papers con- 

 tributed during the Session. These may be classified as follows : 

 Botanical, 16; ethnological, 2; palfeontological, 1; embryological, 

 1 ; zoological, 20. Three Parts of the Proceedings, containing 

 the majority of these papers, were published and distributed last 

 year, in addition to two Parts of the Proceedings for 1897, which 

 remained over from the previous year. The sheets of the con- 

 cluding Part ai'e printed ofi", and as soon as the lithographer has 

 finished his share of the work the Part will be issued. 



By the wreck of the s.s. China on her homeward voyage in March 

 last, the Society had the misfortune to lose a package containing 

 despatches for thirty-four Societies or Institutions in Great Britain, 



