ADDRESS 



BY 



THOMAS MUIR, C.M.G., M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 F.R.S.E. 



PRESIDENT. 



In davs of easily exhausted enthusiasm it is something for a 

 scientific association to have survived seven years, to have made 

 the full circuit of its domain, and now in the city of its birth to 

 be once more seeking to stimulate a zeal for work among indi- 

 vidual students, corporate bodies, and the Government itself. 

 With small blame to anyone, the results might have been much 

 less satisfactory — a fact which the pessimists amongst us would 

 do well to remember. In a country at our stage of develop- 

 ment, having a small scattered population and few large cities, 

 it was somewhat risky to inaugurate such an association at all, 

 and the risk was not lessened when the resolution was taken 

 to convene it every year. We have only to look at the history 

 of its predecessors in other countries, and especiallv to the 

 history of the early years of the sister association in Australia, 

 to learn the difficulties that beset the venture, but fortunatelv 

 also to see that there is good cause to go forward with hope. 



