6 president's address. 



hail i|Uitted It fur the hammer. Thi.s was Kobert Etheriilge. Judging from his 

 celerity, liis quickness in finding shells and naming them, and in drawing sec-tions, 

 I said to Ramsay •This is the man we must have to put our Jermyn Street ^Museum 

 in order.'" Geikie adds, in a footnote, — "Mr. Etheridge. whose merits were al- 

 ready known to Lord Ducie, had been asked by his Lordship to meet the geologists 

 at Tortworth. He was soon after appointed Assistant Naturalist to the Geo- 

 logical Survey; subsequently, on the resignation of Mr. Salter, he became Palae- 

 ontologist, and siuee that time has gradually risen to hold a foremost place among 

 the palaeontologists of this country." Roliert Etheridge, Junr., was a boy about 

 nine years old at this time; and he seems to have inherited his father's interest 

 in geolog-y, and especially in pal8et>ntology ; for, about 1868, as field-geologist, he 

 joined the staff of the Geological Survey of Victoria, so ably organised in 1852 

 and conducted for seventeen yeai-s by Dr. Alfred Selwyn, with the eo-operation 

 of men like Richard Daintree. C. s' Wilkinson, C. D'Oyley H. ApHn, H. Y. 

 L. Browii, and others, who not only left their mark on tlie records of Victorian 

 geology, but subseijuently occupied important official positions in Queensland, 

 New South Wales, South Australia, or elsewhere in the Commonwealth, or in 

 New Zealand . R . Etheridge, Junr., on severing his connection with the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Victoria, became palieontologist to the Geological Surrey of 

 Scotland, and afterwards senior assistant in the Geological Department of the 

 British Museum. In 1887, he came back to Australia to fill the position of 

 palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of New South Walet and to the Aus- 

 tralian Museum, of which, in 1895, he became Curator, and later on Director. 

 The list of his contributions to seientifle knowledge, and especially those I'elating 

 to the palaeontology and anthropology of Australia is very voluminous and valu- 

 able. Thirty-six of his papei-s, together with six joint papers, are to be found 

 in the Society's Proceedings for the years 1888-1915, together with one in the 

 Macleay Memorial Volume. One needs to be a palfpoutologist to appreciate the 

 merits of his long-sustained work; but I think that it may l)e said of him, that 

 he did very much for Australian palaeontology, what his father did for British 

 paliBontology. But over and above this, in connection with the Australian 

 Museum, he has left a good record as an able organiser and director. His laboure 

 ended on January 5th, 1920, in his seventy-third year, while he was away for a 

 holiday at ]\rittagong. We may hope for a more extended biography written by 

 one who was a colleague, and had a direct interest in his work. 



The untimely death of Dr. T. M. Gellatly, Director of the Commonwealth 

 Institute of Science and Industry, at the early age of 40, is much to be deplored . 

 He was appointed Chairman of Directors of the future permanent Institute, only 

 so recently as June, 1918, with the object of organising the industrial scientific 

 investigations of the Commonwealth. He possessed some special (jualifications 

 for the work to which he was apiminted; l)ut an attack of pneumonic infiuenza 

 prematurely ended his pi'omising career on 24th September, 1919, and deprived 

 the Commonwealth of an able officer for whom it will be difficult to find a sub- 

 stitute with like (|ualifications. 



Several of our Membei's, including Mr. J. E. Carne, Mr. T. Steel, Mr. C. 

 T. Musson, Mr. A. G. Hamilton, and our Corresponding Member, Sir Baldwin 

 Spencer, of Melbourne, have recently retired from active official work, but happily 

 without losing their interest in scientific work generally. Mr. Carne's connection 

 with the Department of Mines dates from 1879, and, on his retirement at the end 

 of the \ear, he had been Gt)vernment Geologist for about four yeai-s. His con- 



