REPORT OK THE COUNCIL. XXUl 



The President moved and Mr. R. Edwards seconded the 

 adoption of the Report and Balance Sheet, which was carried 

 unanimously. The election of officers for the ensuing year was 

 then proceeded with and resulted as follows : — President, Joseph 

 Lauterer, M.D. ; Vice-President, P. R. Gordon ; Hon. Treasurer, 

 Hon. A. Norton, M.L.C. ; Hon. Secretary, J. F. Bailey ; Hon. 

 Librarian, A. J. Norton ; Council, F. Manson Bailey, F.L.S., 

 Richard Edwards, J.P., R. L. Jack, F.G.S., John Shirley, B.Sc, 

 Hon. W. F. Taylor, M.D., M.L.C. ; Hon. Auditor, A. J. Turner. 



The President then delivered the following Address : — 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



In accordance with the usual custom, it becomes my 

 duty this evening to address you as the retiring President of 

 this Society, a duty which I find very difficult to carry out in the 

 manner that you have been accustomed to in the past, following 

 as I do in the wake of predecessors of well-known scientific 

 knowledge and literary ability, and my task is rendered the 

 more difficult by reason of the masterly and erudite manner in 

 which my immediate predecessor, in his address of last year, 

 treated his subject. I cannot possibly expect to rival those who 

 have gone before me, and must therefore be satisfied with the 

 hope that what I have to say may be found interesting, and 

 possibly in some degree instructive — embracing as it does the 

 result of observations carried out during a period of over 

 twenty-five years' residence in difierent parts of this colony. In 

 looking about for a subject on which to found my remarks, it 

 has occurred to me, that possibly the influence of the climate of 

 Queensland on its inhabitants of European origin, and their 

 descendants, may aflbrd matter of interest to some, and food for 

 thought to others. Our population born of European parents, form- 

 ing as it does a part of what is usually denominated the Australian 

 natives, presents many distinctive features both physical and 

 mental, so that in a few generations we may expect the develop- 

 ment of characteristics more or less pecuHar to it. The habits and 

 mode of life of a people are determined to a very great extent, if 

 not altogether, by the climatic conditions under which they live, 

 as well as by the physical geography of the country, so that in 

 dealing with the subject these two cannot well be separated. In 



