PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. ie 
It is well it is so, for even the latest published results show 
very clearly that much remains yet to be learnt from gravity 
surveys, that existing data have not been fully utilised, and that 
a great deal more of this work is required. 
In the Southern Hemisphere very little indeed has been done in 
regard to gravity research. There are only a few very scattered 
determinations made by Austrian naval officers; but nothing 
that I am aware of at any inland places. In Australia, previously 
to 1893, we had an absolute determination of the value of g made 
by Neumayer more than thirty years ago ; observations made with 
Kater’s invariable pendulums by the American expedition sent 
out to New, Zealand to observe the Transit of Venus in 1882 ; two 
independent values for Melbourne and Sydney, determined by 
Austrian naval officers with the invariable 1/2° pendulums of 
Colonel Von Sternech ; and nothing more. 
But we did not remain passive spectators of the interest taken 
in other parts of the world in gravity investigations. 
In 1893 the Royal Society oe Victoria created a committee, 
styled “‘The Gravity Survey Committee,” for the purpose of 
initiating and subsequently studying and suggesting the best 
means to execute a gravity survey of Australia. 
The first and most imporfant steps were soon taken. 
Kater’s invariable pendulums were lent to us by the Royal 
Society of London, with which a connection was made with the 
base stations at Greenwich and Kew, and thus established a base 
or zero point at Melbourne and another at Sydney, which will 
enable us to carry on the survey entirely on the differential method 
with any other independent instruments. 
A set of three half-second pendulums, with all the necessary 
accessory apparatus, were constructed at the Melbourne Observa- 
tory, under Mr. Ellery’s supervision, possessing all the latest 
improvements, and these our Mr. Love took to England in 1894, 
and made another independent connection of Greenwich and Kew 
with Melbourne, with satisfactory results. 
This is the present state of gravity work in the colonies. 
We have a well-determined zero point, and a complete set of 
first-rate instruments, with which the gravity survey of this 
continent can be executed with great facility, and within a 
reasonable number of years. 
It is therefore to be hoped that the Gravity Committee will 
receive every encouragement and support for the accomplishment 
of a task which will be a credit to the colonies and a benefit to 
science. 
Tcannot refrain from mentioning a wonderful piece of mechanism 
invented by Professor Threlfall some years since, which has been 
gradually improved by him and by Mr. Pollock, and submitted to 
all possible tests. 
