b PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



Society's regular work, and its import may not be lost sight of. 

 Perhaps it may help to remind us of this if I state that, with the 

 close of the current Session, the total amount of the salaries paid 

 to the Society's investigators will be .£6,600, in addition to the 

 sum spent on the equipment and maintenance of the Bacteriological 

 Laboratory. 



In October, in response to a request from the West Australian 

 Natural History Society at Perth, the Council, whose action was 

 afterwards heartily endorsed by the Society, forwarded a letter 

 to the Premier of West Australia stronglj'- supporting the appeal 

 of the West Australian naturalists that Barrow Island, remark- 

 able for unique species of JIacropus, Perameles, Mus and Malurus, 

 should be set aside as a reserve, and should not b^ leased for 

 sheep-farming. The Council in consequence receiv^ed with much 

 gratification a courteous personal letter from the Premier of 

 West Australia, informing them that the request to reserve the 

 island had been granted by the West Australian Government. 



In August the general question of the welfare of the indigenous 

 flora and fauna, and the best means of their protection, was dis- 

 cussed at a large meeting. Messrs. A. J. North, of the Austra- 

 lian Museum, Frank Farnell, Chairman of the National Park 

 Trust, F. J. W. Harrison, Secretary of the Trustees of the Kuring- 

 Gai Chase, F. M. Rothery, Secretary of the Animals' Protection 

 Society, J. H. Maiden, Secretary of the Royal Society of New 

 South Wales, and R. Etheridge, Curator of the Australian 

 Museum, attended and gave the views of their respective Societies 

 or Institutions. A sub-committee was appointed to confer with 

 the other Societies so as to promote cooperation in an appeal to 

 the Government. The sub-committee met twice, but owing to 

 various causes no practical result has j^et been achieved. 



The year 1908 being the Jubilee of the Theor}' of Natural 

 Selection as propounded by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel 

 Wallace in 1858, it was decided to send a letter of congratulation 

 on the occasion to Dr. Wallace in residence at Broadstone, 

 England. The letter was accordingly drawn up and despatched, 

 and in September a courteous reply of thanks was* received from 



