INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 9 



navy in 1800. He did his fair share of fighting, but, even 

 in the early years of the century, while we were still at war 

 with France, he was employed in the Investigator, under 

 his relative. Captain Flinders, in exploring and surveying 

 the coasts of Australia. After peace was established he 

 turned his attention exclusively to the scientifiic branch of his 

 profession, and he was employed in more than one expedition 

 of discovery in the Arctic Seas. During his tenure of office 

 as Governor of Tasmania he did much for the cause of 

 education and of science in the Colony. In 1 838 he founded 

 a scientific society, which met under his auspices in Govern- 

 ment House. This society, which was the forerunner of the 

 Royal Society of Tasmania, was called the Tasmanian 

 Society, and was formed with the view of stimulating scientific 

 study and of assisting research. Sir John Franklin left the 

 Colony towards the end of 1843, and in 1845 he started on 

 his ill-fated expedition to the Arctic regions. The history of 

 this expedition is, of course, well known to all. The whole 

 expedition perished ; but to Sir John Franklin belongs the 

 honour of having been the first discoverer of the North- West 

 Passage. A noble monument, in one of the most prominent 

 sites in London, commemorates his heroic deeds, and a statue 

 stands in Franklin Square, in this city, erected by the 

 colonists of Tasmania in affectionate remembrance of their 

 former Governor. Even now, after the lapse of fifty years, 

 Sir John Franklin's influence is still felt in Tasmania. As an 

 indication of that influence, it is interesting to note that when 

 our worthy Premier, Mr. Fysh, was asked a short time ago 

 by the Royal Society if he would recommend the Tasmanian 

 Parliament to contribute its quota towards the expense of the 

 forthcoming Antarctic expedition — a request to which, I am 

 happy to say, he acceded-r— he said : " The monument they 

 had erected in the Public Square to the memory of Sir 

 John Franklin should indicate the spirit in which the Colony 

 would deal with this question. That which was most noble in 

 his life, and formed the great object for which his life was 

 given, the people here should sympathise with and support. 

 We should possess in vain the statue standing in Frankhn 

 Square if we did not feel the deepest interest in any future 

 Antarctic discovery." Sir John Franklin himself was a dis- 

 tinguished man of science, but many — in fact, the bulk — of 

 his colleagues in the Tasmanian Society were men whose 

 daily avocations left them but little time for scientific pursuits. 

 What the founders of this Society say of themselves is to be 



