2, PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



The rocks and quicksands in the way are not uncharted, and 

 they are bound to become better known as years go on. There 

 are' the difficulties inherent in the nomadic character of the 

 institution, the difficuhy of securing the attendance of the same 

 working members from year to year, the consequent difficuhy 

 of maintaining continuity of pohcy, the tendency to encroach 

 on the work of other societies, the tendency of authors to 

 indulge too much in the extremes of technicality, and the still 

 more dangerous tendency to run into excessive popularisation. 

 When we bear all this in mind, we cannot but proffer our 

 sympathy to those who have tried to guide the fortunes of the 

 Association during the past seven years, and express the 

 earnest hope that their coming difficulties will be less and their 

 success still greater. 



From more than one point of view it is evident that we start 

 the second seven-year period under propitious auspices. In 

 the first place, it is the year of Union. Such a year ought to 

 prove, as in other instances it has proved, a year of fresh 

 awakening of intellectual effort, a year of increased patriotic 

 desire to study the flora, fauna, and mineral resources of one's 

 country, a year of increased determination to promote the 

 national welfare, and, as one of the greatest ends thereto, the 

 advancement of science. In the next place, we have gained the 

 prestige that attaches to securing for our Honorary President- 

 ship the name of His Majesty King George the Fifth. Long 

 may he reign, and long may his appreciation of intellectual 

 work stimulate his subjects the world over to promote all 

 literary and scientific interests. 



The fact of our Association having His Majesty at its head 

 recalls a great gathering of the parent Association, now about- 

 half a century ago, when the actual president of the meeting 

 was our King's grandfather, long affectionately known among 

 the older of us as the Prince Consort, and who even then had 

 l)y his wisdom of counsel and high personal character endeared 

 himself to the people of the Empire. The address which he 

 delivered on that occasion well merits attention still, and for 

 us to-night has several points of exceptional interest. It sets 

 before us the high ideals which then animated our predeces- 

 sors; and, when we see what great consequences have resulted 

 from apparently insignificant steps then taken, we ought to go 

 forward with courage and hope. 



At the outset he emphasised the objects of the Association, 

 stating that these were " to give a stronger impulse and more 

 systematic direction to scientific inquiry; to promote the inter- 

 course of those who cultivate science in different parts of the 

 Empire with one another and with foreign philosophers; and 

 to obtain a more general attention to the objects of science, 

 and a removal of any disadvantages of a public kind which 

 impede its progress." If we question ourselves as to our 

 objects, it is pleasing to find that this sentence is almost ver- 

 batim the sentence which stands at the head of the constitution 

 ■of our own Association. We modestly say " the different 



