Vlll PRESIDENTIAL AUDKESS. 



On the motion of Mr. G. Watkins, seconded by Mr. W. A. 

 Hargreaves, the Report was ado})ted. 



The Treasurer's Statement was retid' and adopted. 

 The President then delivered his address. 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, JANUARY, 1899. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — 



Happily for your retiring President, the one note of 

 sadness which is first sounded in the Annual Address needs not 

 to be struck by me, for we are fortunate in having no requiem 

 to sing. Death's grim angel has passed us by without alighting. 

 Yet Ave must realise that, with the American poet, we have to 



say— 



'Twas at thy door, friend, and not at mine 

 The angel with the aniarantli went in." 



Aye, went in and culled one of the fairest of Queensland 

 flowers, on the eve of its blossoming. In the Hon. T. J. Byrnes, 

 Premier of this colony, we lost not only a prospective fellow — 

 for he had promised me he would throw in his lot with us — but 

 one who had the higher education of this colony close to his 

 heart. 



This leads me naturally to speak of one of my predecessors 

 in this chair, Mr. R. Logan .Jack, (rovernment Geologist, who 

 has left us for a while to take a well-merited holiday after nearly 

 23 years of continuous work in the colony. Mr. Jack's con- 

 tributions to the geology and the mineral development of his 

 adopted home, constitute a magnificent testimonial, graven with 

 his own hammer, indited with his own pen. We may be 

 permitted to hope that such great merit will be made known to 

 the Lady he has served so well in her own Queensland. 



Would that these honours fell less sparsely on the scientific 

 veterans of the colony. Kindly time has chapletted with silver 

 the honoured heads of two of your former Presidents, and on 

 one of them — Hon. A. C. Gregory — the coveted Companionship 

 of SS. Michael and George has been conferred, and )-ight 

 worthily, for is he not an uncrowned king of explorers? Is he 

 not a sturdv relic of ancient jreolo'fv in himself? 



