PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



Before offering you a brief report upon the progress of the 

 Societ3''s affairs during the year 1904, I may remind you that 

 the Society enters to-day upon the thirty-first year of its career 

 of steadil}^ growing useful work. 



Twelve (nominally thirteen) Ordinar}" Members and two 

 Associate Members were elected during the year — a very satis- 

 factory increase, compared with the numbers for the preceding 

 two years; especially as the payment of entrance fees again 

 became operative at the beginning of the Session. 



Since the last Annual Meeting the Society has lost by death 

 two of the veterans among the Ordinar}^ Members — Mr. P. N. 

 Trebeck in his 82nd, and the Hon. P. G. King, M.L.C., in his 

 86 th year. 



Prosper Nicholas Trebeck was born in Calcutta in 1823; and 

 after some time spent in England, came out to Sydney in the 

 year 1841. During his subsequent long residence in Australia, 

 he was actively identified with the great sheep and cattle indus- 

 tries, either as a squatter or in business. His experiences as a 

 pastoralist in Victoria at the time of the gold discoveries, when 

 •the energies of the employer of labour were paralysed by the 

 desertion of his men, were of a very eventful character. In the 

 3'ear 1863 Mr. Trebeck came to reside in Sydney, and in 1875 he 

 took an active part in raising a large sum of money to further 

 the pioneering efforts of the late Mr. T. S. Mort to start an export 

 trade in frozen meat. As a public-spirited citizen he took a 

 keen interest in various other important organisations in this 

 State which have for their object the development of our major 

 primary industries. For some years he was President of the 

 Animals' Protection Society, in which he took a very enthusiastic 

 interest. Mr. Trebeck became a Member of the Linnean Society 

 of New South Wales in the year 1883. In 1887 he w^-is elected 

 a Member of the Council, of which he was still a Member at the 

 time of his death. From 1898 until his retirement from active 



