10 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



Dr. Woolnough, acompanied also by Dr. Breinl, of the Tropi 

 cal Institute of Medicine at Townsville, were enabled to visit 

 the Northern Territory with the object of studying, as far as 

 time would permit, some of the difficult problems which pre- 

 sent themselves in connection with the settlement and 

 development of that vast but remote portion of the Conti- 

 nent. One result has been the reappointment, for the year 

 1912, of Professor Spencer, as Special Commissioner in con 

 nection with the Protection of the Aborigines; and Professor Gil- 

 ruth has severed his connection with the University of Melbourne, 

 to enter upon the duties of Administrator of the Territory for a 

 period of five years. Now this alliance of Government with 

 Science in the case of the Northern Territory, is a very interesting 

 and important experiment. For if trained scientific men with 

 capacity for organisation, with no axes to grind, and with a sym- 

 pathetic Federal Government behind them, cannot find some way 

 of dealing satisfactoi'ily with the difficult problems in connection 

 with the Northern Territory, with which they are called upon 

 to deal, then the problems must be well-nigh insoluble. 



Another instance is afforded by the assignment of Mr. Mc Alpine, 

 Vegetable Pathologist to the Victorian Department of Agricul- 

 ture, to the Federal Government, for a period of two years, for 

 the purpose of making a thorough study of the disease known as 

 the Bitter Pit of Apples, under local conditions. Though not 

 unknown in Europe and America, the disease is particularly pre- 

 valent in South Africa and Australia. The so-called pits, appear- 

 ing as rust-coloured patches when an infected apple is pared, are 

 found to be free from bacteria and other organisms; and their 

 occurrence, therefore, has been attributed to physiological causes. 

 By way of a preliminary study of the question, Mr. McAlpine 

 communicated two papers on the fibro-vascular system of the 

 normal apple, and of the normal pear (pome), to the Society, and 

 they will appear in the forthcoming Part of the Proceedings. 



A third instance is afforded by the visit of Mr. J. E. Came, of 

 the Department of Mines, Sydney, to New Guinea, to report on 

 the deposits of Tertiary coal which have been discovered in recent 

 years. Seeing that the Commonwealth Scientific Departments 



