xxxix 



always cherished the highest esteem for 

 him. (Applause.) If there ever was an 

 honest and good man in any community 

 Sir James Agnew was one — (applause) — 

 and he w'as an honest man — an ' ' honest 

 man" has been described as the noblestwork 

 of God — and an ornament to the colony. 

 (Renewed applause.) His Queen had 

 decorated him, but he had never 

 made a parade of it. They could not 

 do better than show their respect for such 

 a man, and the only pity was that there 

 were not more such men in the community. 

 (Applause. ) 



Mr. R. M. JOHXSTONjF.L.S., said he had 

 been requested to say a few words from an- 

 other point of view^ He bore testimony to 

 the aid and encouragement that Sir 

 James Agnew had always given liim 

 and others in scientific studies. In 

 his early studies as a naturalist 30 years 

 ago, at Launceston, Sir James wrote to 

 him most encouragingly. If he (Mr. 

 Johnston) had done any good work for the 

 Society it was to a very great extent due 

 to the kind encouragement and friendship 

 that Sir James had extended to him — 

 (applause) — and Sir James had similarly 

 encouraged others ; he was himself one of 

 the earliest observers in natural history in 

 Tasmania. His attention had been called by 

 their active secretary, Mr. A. Morton — who 

 readily lookedupeverythingof importance — 

 to the minutes of theproceedings of the earlier 

 days of the Society, which showed that Sir 

 James in the year 1842 read a paper on 

 the snakes of Tasmania. Upon looking it 

 up he found that the paper was a most valu- 

 able contribution to science, and of no less 

 importance to-day. The speaker referred to 

 the encouragement Sir James Agnew had 

 always given to art and art students 

 in this colony, notably to Mr. W. 

 C. Piguenit, who had now earned such 

 an enviable reputation as an artist. Lastly, 

 in speaking of the many valuable donations 

 made by Sir James to the Library of 

 the Royal Society, the speaker specially re- 

 ferred, amid applause, to the very valuable 

 gift by Sir James to the Society of Gould's 

 "Birds of Australia and Asia." (Ap- 

 plause. ) 



The portrait is the gift of Messrs. 

 McGuffie & Co., of Elizabeth-street, to the 

 Society, and is a striking likeness of Sir 

 James in his court dress, wearing his 

 K.C.M.G. honours, and is a platinotype 

 photograph mounted and framed in rich 

 gold. 



CORAL REEFS. 



Mr. T. Stephens, M.A,, F.G.S., read 



an interesting paper on coral reefs, with 

 special reference to the Funafuti bore. 



After giving an account of the reef-build- 

 ing coral polyps, their organic range, and 

 the building up of coral islands, the author 

 described the mode in which the calcareous 

 and silicious remains of myriads of minute 

 denizens of the surface waters of the ocean 

 accumulated, under favourable conditions, 

 to such an extent as to considerably raise, 

 in the course of ages, certain portions of 

 the sea floor. Darwin's theory, which 

 assigned subsidence of the land as the main 

 cause of the growth of the coral reefs and 

 islands rising from deep water, and the 

 theory of Dr. Murray and others who re- 

 garded them as built up on banks which 

 had been raised by oceanic sedimentation 

 to within 25 fathoms of the surface, were 

 explained by reference to coloured diagrams. 

 Passages from one of Darwin's latest letters 

 summarising the arguments in favour of the 

 subsidence theory were quoted, and a brief 

 account was given ot the three expeditions 

 organised to test the matter by boring, 

 with a result that old coral reef had been 

 found at a depth of about 160 fathoms 

 below the level at which it must have been 

 originallj" constructed. 



THE WEST COAST MINING FIELDS. 



Mr. J. W. Beattie (hon. photographer to 

 the Tasmanian Government) read a paper 

 entitled " Notes on the countrj^ from Kelly 'g^ 

 Basin to Gormanston, via the North Mount 

 Lyell Railway route. " The paper was elabor- 

 ately illustrated by over 70 lantern sHdes, 

 principally from negatives taken by Mr, Beattie, 

 and from others kindly loaned by Mr. A. E. 

 Edleston, locomotive superintendent North 

 Mount Lyell Railway, which showed the rail- 

 way construction works up to date. The 

 lecturer dealt with the beautiful scenery of 

 Macquarie Harbour, mentioning the different 

 points of interest from Strahan to Kelly's 

 Basin, and contrasting the old days of the 

 harbour with the present, views of Philip 

 Island 1830, Settlement Island 1830, and 

 Grummet Island 1830, being shown, with re- 

 presentations of the same localities as they 

 appear now in 1899, Kelly's Basin, with the 

 great works of the North Mount Lyell Copper 

 Co., their wharves, raihva}', and brickworks, 

 were graphically described and illustrated. 

 The Darwin and Jukes mining fields, and their 

 fine scenery, were described and shown, along 

 the railway, their immense future importance 

 being specially emphasised, and, judging from 

 the frequent applause which greeted these 

 views, and also of the scenery of the railway 

 route right through, evident satisfaction was 



