INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



SIR ROBERT G. C. HAMILTON, K.C.B., LL.D., 



GOVERNOR OF TASMANIA, 



PRESIDENT, 



HOBART, THURSDAY, 7th JANUARY, 1892. 



♦ 



First, it is ray pleasing duty, as Her Majesty's Representa- 

 tive in Tasmania, and on behalf of the Colony, to tender to 

 the Members of the Australasian Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science from the other Australasian Colonies a hearty 

 welcome on their assembling in Hobart to hold the Fourth 

 Annual Session of the Association. So important and in- 

 fluential a gathering as this of scientific persons, and of 

 persons interested in the pursuit of science, has, I believe, 

 never before assembled in Australasia, and t assure you that 

 I deeply feel my inability to do justice to the high position 

 of President to which, by your kindness, I have been elected. 

 I take the greatest interest in every movement or under- 

 taking which tends in the direction of the progress and 

 advancement of science, and, so far as I have had opportunity 

 during my residence in Tasmania, I have endeavoured to use 

 any influence I may possess in that direction. But I can 

 lay no claim whatever to being regarded as a man of science. 

 This being so, when the Australasian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science were good enough to ask me to 

 preside at this annual gathering I hesitated to accept the 

 honour, as 1 thought it most desirable, and, indeed, almost 

 essential, that the President should be a man eminent in some 

 branch of science. When pressed, however, to accept the 

 oflice, and having agreed to do so, I looked about me to see 

 in what direction as your President I could best advance the 

 interests of the Association. Now, one of the objects of the 



