PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 7 



time the legal fraternity in Australia comprised two English 

 solicitors who received a retaining fee from the English Govern- 

 ment as an inducement to take up the practice of law at the Anti- 

 podes. James Norton, jun., was articled to his father in 1843, 

 was admitted as a solicitor in 1848 nnd subsequently taken into 

 partnership. On his father's death in 1862, he succeeded to the 

 business; and, with his partners, he ever afterwards worthily 

 upheld the good name of the important practice so successfully 

 initiated by his father. In 1879 he was called to the Upper 

 House, and in 1884 he became Postmaster-General in the Stuart 

 Government. Outside the field of politics, Dr. Norton patrioti- 

 cally served the State in several capacities — as a trustee of the 

 Australian Museum from 1874: as a member of the Board of 

 Trustees of the Free Public Library from 1878, and of which he 

 was chairman at the time of his decease; and as a trustee of 

 Hyde, Phillip and Cook Parks for many years, as well as in 

 other ways. In his early days he seems to have developed a 

 taste for natural history, which provided him with a never-failing 

 hobby for the rest of his life. Some thirty years ago, when the 

 publication of the "Flora Australiensis " made it possible for 

 Australian students to take up the study of indigenous plants 

 with satisfaction and profit, Dr. Norton was one of a small band 

 which included Professor Stephens, Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, Mr. 

 Edwin Daintree and a few others whose names are not now 

 ascertainable, who met together informally from time to time, to 

 study and compare their collections, and to exchange experiences, 

 with a view to mutual help and encouragement. He was an 

 ardent horticulturist, and took great pride in the beautiful trees 

 and shrubs, especially those of indigenous species, which he 

 cultivated in his fine old garden, and many of which he had 

 himself planted. The spring flowering of his magniticent collection 

 of Cape bulbs furnished an annual occasion for assembling and 

 extending a hearty welcome to his many friends. The natural 

 history of his country home at Springwood was a perennial 

 source of delight and refreshment. He spared and safeguarded 

 the welfare of all the most attractive native plants on his estate, 



