president's address. 29 



visit out-of-the-way localities in the United States, but also other 

 parts of the world such as Peru, China, Egypt, Siberia, and soon. 



Such, in brief review, are some of the ways in which American 

 enterprise manifests itself in connection with the expansion and 

 development of public Museums. To what extent it is primarily 

 attributable to the appreciation of knowledge for knowledge' sake, 

 which- characterises the Americans, I am not prepared to say. 

 But, however that may be, the developments I have outlined 

 are matters which one would like to see claiming an equal 

 amount of attention in Australia, and especially in New South 

 Wales, the mother State of the Commonwealth. The only real 

 obstacle in the path of progress is the old familiar one of lack of 

 resources. In the last Annual Report of the Australian Museum, 

 the Trustees again found occasion to urge upon the Government 

 the inadequacy of their resources for maintaining its efficiency 

 and for developing the collections. Everywhere in Australasia 

 and Polynesia land-faunas are becoming more and more disturbed, 

 rare species are becoming rarer, and aboriginal peoples are 

 becoming more and more sophisticated or are vanishing. And in 

 the meantime our own Museum too often is unable to obtain a 

 share of the material available, partly because of the competition of 

 the better subsided National, State or private Museums of Europe 

 and America. Nevertheless, experience plainly shows that 

 opportunities once lost are often lost for ever; and that for 

 Museums to stand still under such circumstances really means 

 they are falling behind, while others win the place of honour 

 which they should have occupied themselves. 



Undoubtedly such brilliant results as are seen in museum 

 development in the United States could hardly have been achieved 

 unless aid had been offered by the princely and unselfish munifi- 

 cence, not of a few, but of many well known citizens of the 

 Republic. In short, in order that our Institutions may hold 

 their own it is absolutely necessary that they receive the sympathy 

 and generous financial support of Australians similarly endowed 

 with the good things of this world. Needless to remark that we 



