OF THE SOCIETY. ISli 



1913. 



paid Secretary of the Society "in its proper and originally 

 "intended character of a Scientific Society, '^ in succession to 

 Dr. Lillie. Sir William Denison rendered it possible for 

 the Society to secure Dr. Milligan's services, bv giving him 

 at the same time an appointment under the Government. 

 The salaiy proposed to be paid by the Society was £150, 

 but at Dr. Milligan's recaiest this was reduced to £100 for 

 several years, in order that funds might be available for 

 other purposes of the Society. 



Dr. Milligan's appointment, and the constant interest 

 shown by Sir William Denison in the Society — of which 

 ample evidence is given by the numerous resolutions of 

 thanks passed from time to time by the Council and the 

 Society, and by the numerous papers he read — at once re- 

 sulted in the expansion of its work. The Gardens were 

 maintained as heretofore; but the Society now held fre- 

 quent meetings for the reading and discussion of papers, 

 a Museum and a Library were established, and in 1849 the 

 first number of the Papers and Proceedings was published. 



For the reorganisation of the Society the members will 

 always hold Sir William Denison in grateful memory. It 

 was he who brought into the Society the most active of 

 the members of Sir John Franklin's Society, and who in- 

 spired in our Society the good traditions which they had 

 established. Sir Eardley Wilmot was the founder of our 

 Society; but with him we may associate as founders of its 

 traditions his predecessor Sir John Franklin and liis suc- 

 cessor Sir William Denison. To these three Governors the 

 Society owes its existence, and the spirit in which its early 

 work was done. 



Before referring in some little detail to the work of the 

 Society from 1848 to 1863, it is convenient to mention now 

 that in 1854 an Act of the Legislative Council made pro- 

 vision for vesting the joroperty of the Society in trustees, 

 and for other matters connected with the management of 

 its affairs. In 1855 the name of the Colony was changed 

 to Tasmania, and the Society then became "The Royal 

 k50cietv of Tasmania for Horticulture, Botany, and the 

 "Advancement of Science." This remained the correct title 

 of the Society until 1911, although both in the Society's 

 Rules and publications, and in common usage, the shorter 



Tasmanian Society and an original member of the Eoyal Society. 

 He contributed many papers to the Ta.smanian Jovmal and to the 

 Pavers and Proceediiuis, of which one of the best known is a vocabu- 

 lary of the language of the aborigines of Tasmania. See later refer- 

 r^nees in this narrative, an obituary notice in the Report for 1884, and 

 Mr. Maiden's Records of Tasmanian Botanists, these Papers and Pro- 

 dmux, 1909, p. 22. 



