94 PRESIDEN?’S ADDRESS: 
The Report of the Council having been adopted, the President, 
A. Norton, M.L.A., then delivered the following address :— 
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
__ In addfessing you this evening [ shall not, 1 hope, be taxing your patience 
if I bfiefly fefer, before passifig on to other subjects, to one of the most 
Iripettant papers which has been submitted to you since we met together 
at dur last annual gathefing. ‘he science of figures is a subject that I do 
Hot cldim te have conipletely mastered, but there is a simple statement 
€ontiected with the papef to which | allude—the report of the council of 
this Society fot the year just closéed—that commends itself for its simplicity. 
No scientific skill could conceal the fact that we have been in sympathy with 
the fest of the world; and have to sore extent participated in the difficulties 
that Have been comimion to all. In reterring to this subject, however, I 
have no desire to convey a gloomy impression, for I believe the worst 
dangers are past, but would remind you that we can only hope to become 
as strong a body as we ought to be, by the combined exertions of all those 
members who are in a position to contribute to the practical objects the 
Society was formed to promote. If the financial statement for the year was 
the chief thing to be considered, there might be room for the accusation 
that we had not accomplished much; put men who are influenced by a 
desire to increase their knowledge and to raise themselves to a higher 
intellectual plane by learning in its many details the wonderful story of 
the book of nature, though they may be hampered by many difficulties, 
cannot be prevented from exercising their powers of observation, and 
recording the results of their researches for their mutual advantage and 
enjoyment. While it is a matter for regret, therefore, that many members 
have been unable to give as much support to the Society as could be wished, 
we may fairly congratulate ourselves upon the good work that has been 
done, and ihe prospect of being able to render a better account of ourselves 
when we again meet together to review another chapter of our history. 
Amongst the papers that have been contributed during the year will be 
found several that reflect the greatest credit upon those gentlemen to whom 
we are indebted for tnem. Mineralogy, paleontology, zoology, botany, 
pathology, and other subjects of the highest interest have been treated in a 
manner which cannot fail to enlarge our information in respect to them, 
and which indicates the carefulness with which investigations have been 
conducted. The organisation of a section for the study of natural history, 
under the title of the Field Naturalists’ Section, is a step that may lead 
to greater results than many persons anticipate. In a colony where the 
population is limited, as it is in Queensland, the number of those who 
devote themselves to scientific pursuits is necessarily small, and it follows 
that the young people who wish to make themselves acquainted with the 
natural objects that surround them, have few opportunities of acquiring 
information on these subjects, unless some feasible plan is adopted for 
bringing them into contact with men who can tell them what they wish to 
know. By joining in excursions into the country they have the best means 
of learning, for the lesson-book is spread out before them and the teachers 
are of the company. To the general public these semi-scientific expeditions 
are a source of amusement, and those who take part in them are made the 
subjects of good-natured banter; but when the miner wants to be told 
