president's address. 709 



Now I think I may say that Sir "William Macleay contributed 

 to the progress of science to a greater or less extent, not in one or 

 two only, but in all of these ways. As an original investigator 

 his name is best known as an entomologist and ichthyologist. In 

 the former field he worked diligently for many years, devoting 

 with the greatest regularity the morning hours of every clay to 

 his collections. The results of his work are embodied in a large 

 number of papers contributed to the Transactions 'of the long 

 defunct Entomological Society of New South Wales ; and to 

 the Proceedings of this Society. In these papers very many new 

 species of Australian Coleoptera of a number of families are 

 described. Ichthyology was taken up as a special study at a 

 somewhat later stage — the first contributions to this subject being 

 the papers descriptive of the Fishes of the "Chevert" Expedition, 

 in which the late Dr. H. G. Alleyne collaborated with him ; these' 

 were published in 1876. In subsequent years numerous papers on 

 this subject appeared, the most important of which were those 

 entitled " Descriptive Catalogue of the Fishes of Australia," sub- 

 sequently issued in a separate form, and constituting a most 

 useful and convenient handbook to the study of Australian Fishes. 

 In these entomological and ichthyological studies Sir William 

 Macleay had pretty constantly in view the economic bearing of 

 his subject, as is witnessed by his not infrequent notes on noxious 

 insects in the Entomological Society's Proceedings, and in many 

 observations contained in his ichthyological papers. His know- 

 ledge of the latter subject was brought specially to bear on the 

 subject of the fisheries of the colony in the work of the Royal 

 Commission appointed in 1880 to enquire into the subject of the 

 fisheries — a Commission of which he was elected chairman. The 

 practical outcome of the Report of this Royal Commission was the 

 Fisheries Act of 1881, still in force, under which the Com- 

 missioners of Fisheries hold their appointment. The practical 

 side of his character was also shown in the efforts which he made 

 to promote and support various enterprises for securing to the 

 metropolis a more adequate supply of fish. 



