XL. 
over 5000 publications on scientific subjects. The necessity, however, for more room, and I may add less 
noise, has induced me to build the edifice we are now assembled in, which I beg to present, such as it is, to 
the Society for the period of 89 years, the unexpired term of my original lease of the ground for 99 years. 
« And now, having got to this point in our history, when I hope that all difficulties have terminated, 
and we may look forward to a prosperous future, it would be well to review the objects with which the 
Society was founded. Our rules state that the Society is ‘for the promotion of the study of natural history 
in all its branches.’ Few people, I suspect, are aware of the wide significance of that sentence.” 
Tn connection with the Linnean Society of New South Wales it is only necessary 
to mention further the gift by Sir William during his lifetime of the sum of £14,000 
by way of endowment, supplemented by a bequest of £6000 towards the same object. 
Virtually, however, the actual endowment dates more or less from the commencement 
of the Society, for though Sir William kept the principal in his own hands, yet his 
liberality found an outlet each year for more or less of the annual interest on the 
amount named. And in addressing the host on the festive occasion referred to above, 
Professor Stephens neither overstated Sir William’s liberality to the Society nor 
failed to express the sentiments of the members of the Society, and especially of 
those who had been officially associated with Sir William Macleay in the conduct of 
the Society’s affairs, when he said :— 
“In the brief history of the operations of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, which you have 
just laid before its members, and your notice of the inconveniences and even disaster under which its work 
has been hitherto maintained, I observe a serious omission of important facts. It is quite true that the 
Society was in the first instance confined to a very indifferent lodging, that our affairs were improved by 
the permission of the trustees of the Free Public Library to occupy for the purposes of our meetings a room 
in that establishment, and that our possession of excellent quarters in the Garden Palace was only 
terminated in a fatal conflagration. You have forgotten, however, to state that since that misfortune you 
have lodged the Society at your own expense, providing for its use in the first place an office in Hunter 
Street ; and, secondly, a commodious house in Phillip Street, in which we have been for two years 
exceedingly comfortable, and which you cease to place at our disposal only because you have now 
completed the building of this spacious and admirably planned Palace of Science which you have this day 
presented to us. You have also neglected to inform us of the fact that you have yourself supplied the 
salaries of the paid officers of the Society. That you have defrayed by far the greater portion of the cost 
of the Society’s publications, and that you have purchased and presented to the Society two inestimable 
collections of scientific books and records, one unhappily doomed to perish in flame, the other, I trust, 
likely to remain safely and conveniently arranged in this house for the continual use and advantage of the 
Society. One further benefit you have conferred upon all members, present and future, and I may add, 
upon the whole of Australia, in the incorporation of the Society by Act of Parliament. It is to you that 
the country owes the establishment of a new and permanent institution, founded, not for the sake of any 
pecuniary, social, or political advantage to its members, but for assistance to students in their labours to 
promote knowledge, for the progress of this community, and for the welfare of humanity. 
‘“‘There is a malignant old proverb which advises us not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Your 
horses, however, require no examination. They have been given with a warranty, a warranty absolute and 
perfect, which we all recognise with a kind of wonder, in the far-reaching and thorough-going character of 
your munificence. No higher guarantee for the soundness of your gift horses could be offered, and your 
