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SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING. 



14th June, 1920. 



In Commemoration of the Centenary of the Birth of Sib William Macleat. 



Mr. J. .). Fletcher, M.A., B.Se., President, in the Chair. 



Presidential Address, 



"THE SOCIETY'S HERITAGE FROM THE MACLEAYS." 



Yesterday (Sunday, 13th June) was the centenary of Sir William Maeleay's 

 birth. At that time George iv. was King. The Princess Alexandrina Victoria, 

 afterwards Queen Victoria, was an infant about thirteen months old. "Science 

 all over the world" was about to lose "its Nestor," Sir Joseph Banks, whose 

 splendid labours ended six days later (on .June 19th, 1820) . William Sharp 

 Macleay, cousin of William, had published his first contribution to scientific know- 

 ledge. Part i. of the Hor* Entomologieae, in the preceding year, 1819. Part ii. 

 of the same work was published in the year following (1821), so that William 

 Macleay was bom in the interval between the issue of the two Parts. 



Coming nearer home — Sydney, the first British settlement in Australia, had 

 been founded a few months over thirty-two years. Major-General Laehlan Mac- 

 quarie was Governor of New South Wales. Not (juite five years before, the ex- 

 plorations of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth, and later of Evans, and the 

 subsequent construction of a road over the Blue Mountains by William Cox, had 

 made it possible for the Governor, "accompanied by his lady, and followed by a 

 numerous retinue," including J. W. Lewin, artist, to jpurney to Bathurst Plains, 

 and fix upon the site for the township of Bathurst. Railways, telegraphs, 

 steamers, penny postage and postage stamps were then unknown. 



Of the century now ended, into which William Macleay was born, he spent 

 about eighteen years and nine months in Scotland, his native land, and on the 

 voyage out to Australia. For nearly fifty-three years he resided in New South 

 Wales, except for a few months on his expedition to New Guinea in 1875. His 

 fruitful labours ended somewhat more than twenty-eight years ago. 



Sir William Macleay, by his example and influence, and by his own efforts 

 during a period of about seventeen years, and by his benefactions, largely made 

 the Linnean Society of New South Wales possible in its present developed form. 

 The sustained co-operation and help of a long succession of members, extending 

 over a period of more than forty-five years, have contributed to make it what it 

 is to-day. A question in which we are interested, and that may be asked in a 

 legitimate way. is : How came he to be so interested in science as to become first of 



