president's address. 859 



the circumstances are to a large extent altered. The excellent 

 Collections of the Australian Museum, the Free Public Library, 

 the Royal Society, and (though as yet to a limited extent) of the 

 Sydney University, as well as — though last, not least — of the 

 Linnean Society, have given New South Wales a fair chance in 

 the field. It may be observed, by the way, that concerted action 

 on the part of these institutions might under present circumstances 

 result in filling the inevitable blanks which even their united 

 resources still disclose to the critical inquirer. But in any case it 

 cannot but be a ground for lively satisfaction that the collections 

 which have been made in the late Expedition to New Guinea, 

 organized by the Geographical Society of Australasia, are to be 

 examined, classified, and described by local authorities. 



It is understood that the Mammalia, Birds, and Reptiles will be 

 undertaken by Mr. Ramsay, the Fishes by Mr. Ogilby, the Insects 

 by Mr. Macleay, the Crustacea by Mr. Haswell, the Mollusca by 

 Mr. Brazier, the Ccelenterata, if possible, by Dr. v. Lendenfeld, 

 and the Flora in general, as a matter of course, by the indefatigable 

 Baron von Mueller. Some other branches have, I believe, not yet 

 been allotted, but will, I do not doubt, be entrusted to Australian 

 experts. 



It is not necessary to occupy your time with a mere list of the 

 various papers which have been read before the Society in the 

 course of the last year, since that information will be published in 

 a more convenient form in the Annual Volume of our Proceedings. 

 But it may possibly conduce to a useful economy of time and 

 trouble in hunting up the bibliography of any of our subjects, if 

 I lay before you a short sketch, entei'ing into no more detail than 

 is absolutely requisite, of the work which has been accomplished 

 during the past year in our own Society, and during the preceding 

 one in the other Scientific Societies of Australia. I regret that it 

 is not now, nor is it ever likely to- be possible, that we at our 

 Annual Meeting should review the whole contemporaneous territory 

 from one panoramic centre. This could only be done by taking 

 newspaper accounts of meetings and of paj^ers as authoritative 

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