I.— OPENING ADDRESS. 



By Mr SYMINGTON GRIEVE, President. 



(Bead Nov. 20, 1885.) 



The first duty I have to perform is to express my thanks for the 

 honour you have conferred upon me, in making me yoiir President 

 for the corning year. I feel deeply that you have placed me in a 

 position of considerable difficulty, as I cannot expect to fulfil the 

 duties of President in the same satisfactory way they have been 

 done by the accomplished Naturalist whose term of office has just 

 expired. I am sure each of you will join with me in expressing to 

 him oiir grateful thanks for the manner in which he has striven to 

 promote the interests of the Club, which has progressed in member- 

 ship and usefulness by strides and bounds during the last three 

 years, I hope he, and other past Presidents, may long be spared 

 to attend our meetings, and to manifest the interest they have ever 

 shown in the welfare and prosperity of the Club. 



Having elected me to the honourable position of presiding at 

 your meetings, it will be my earnest desire to try and increase 

 their usefulness. I think it is possible that we may devise a more 

 systematic way of working, so that in all we do, it may be with 

 the object of studying some special subject or subjects in a more 

 thorough and searching way than we have done in the years gone 

 by. You will notice I use the word " we," for unless you are, each 

 of you, willing to unite earnestly in doing your best to aid the 

 Council in trying to inaugiirate more systematic modes of investiga- 

 tion, they cannot hojie or expect to attain the satisfactory results 

 they would like. We must rely upon each of you feeling an 

 individual responsibility, and doing your utmost to make our meet- 

 ings and publication a success. 



With the advantages we now possess, it will be a shame to its 

 if we allow our powers to lie dormant, and the opportunity to pass 

 without striking out into new branches of study. To some extent 

 the Council have provided for the occasion, and have agreed to 

 relieve our able Secretary of the arduous task of arranging for the 

 papers to be brought before our meetings. However, it seems to 

 me that this is only a beginning ; for it must now devolve to a 

 great extent upon the members of the Club to keep up a continual 

 supply of material in the way of papers for the Council to choose 

 from. I trust the time is not far distant when you will emulate 



