ADDRESS 



BY 



His Excellency the Hon. Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, 

 G.C.M.G., LL.D., Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, 



President. 



When I was invited, by a deputation of the South African 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, to preside, and deliver 

 the opening address, at this meeting, I informed tlie deputation that 

 my acceptance must be provisional ; as it was possible that my public 

 duties might perhaps render it necessary that I should remain at 

 Cape Town, whilst the meeting was taking place. I am sorry to 

 say that the contingency to which I alluded, which did not then seem 

 ))robable, has, after all, arisen, and that I am prevented, much to my 

 regret, from being present at your meeting, and from expressing to 

 you in person my sense of the honour which the Council of the Asso- 

 ciation has conferred on me by electing me as your President for the 

 current year. I understand, however, that it is the wish of the 

 Association that I should address you, if not in person, at least vicar- 

 iously : and I am therefore putting on paper some of the thoughts 

 which, had I been able to be amongst you, I should have submitted 

 for your consideration. 



First, I should like to comment on the remarkable advance 

 which has taken place in South Africa, of late years, in the matter 

 of general public interest in scientific matters. Scientific men have 

 taken an interest in, and have studied. South Africa for more than 

 150 years — La Caille, Le Vaillant, Herschel. Burchell, Lichtenstein, 

 Andrew Smith, for example, are names which will be familiar to 



