44 THE VlCTOUrAN NATURALIST. 



president's address. 



The president, Mr. T. S. Hall, M.A.,then delivered the follow- 

 ing address : — 



" Ladies and Gentlemen, — The custom of delivering a presi- 

 dential address has long fallen into disuse among us, but some 

 injudicious remarks on my part at a recent committee meeting 

 induced a combined assault on me, which I was powerless to 

 resist, and hence my appearance before you this evening. 



" During the past year we celebrated the twenty-first anniver- 

 sary of our existence as a club, and I thought that it would be a 

 convenient occasion for me this evening to offer a few remarks 

 on our aims, and how far we have attained or fallen short of 

 them. 



" Our long list of members and the attendance at our meetings 

 show that the Club successfully fills what would otherwise be a 

 vacant place in the cultivation of natural science in Victoria. 

 We number amongst us nearly all those who are doing original 

 work in zoology, botany, and geology in the State. But we must 

 recollect that our very success shows us that we should beware 

 how we vary from our present methods. The Club is not spec- 

 ially founded for the forwarding of the detailed study of morphology, 

 nor the long description of new species of all sorts of life. We 

 do not ask here for papers replete with references to previous 

 work, full of minute descriptions of geological strata, and packed 

 with the evidence derivable from long lists of fossils. If we did 

 ask for such, could we, with our limited means, publish them as 

 they should be published, and then distribute them as they should 

 be distributed to the scientific societies of the world ? 



" I touch on this point, for it has long been before my mind, 

 and has frequently been a subject of discussion with individual 

 members of the Club. What are the aims of a society such as 

 this ? Are they the best aims for us, and how far are they being 

 fulfilled ? 



" What our aims are may best be answered by calling to mind the 

 circumstances surrounding the founding of the Club. Then the 

 only societies in Victoria which paid any attention to natural 

 science were the Royal Society of Victoria and the Microscopical 

 Society of Victoria. There was, as the societies were then carried 

 on, no place where the field naturalist could meet his friends, or 

 his foes, and discuss with them those minor facts which the field 

 worker must know, facts which no book can satisfactorily tell him, 

 but which are handed down by oral tradition. Show me how I 

 can skin this bird so as best to hide the damage it has sustained. 

 Where can I take this or that insect ? What sort of paper should 

 I get for my dried plants, and where can I buy it ? These, and a 

 host of similar questions were the ones our early members felt 



