INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 9 



those of Sir John Franklin and the Rev. Dr. Lilhe, to 

 whom I have already referred, I find the names of the Rev. 

 T. J. Ewing, Mr, Ronald C. Gunn, and Dr. Joseph 

 Milligan, who were noble pioneers in the cause of science 

 in Tasmania, — men whose hearts never failed them amid 

 discouragements and difficulties, and who built up much of 

 the knowledge we now possess of the botany, zoology, and 

 geology of Tasmania. Of the original resident Members 

 three still, I am happy to say, are with us. One of them is a 

 lady, Mrs. Allport, whose son, Mr. Morton Allport, was a 

 mainstay of the Royal Society for many years, and in whose 

 death, in 1878,^ at the comparatively early age of forty-seven, 

 Tasmania suffered a serious loss. The two other surviving 

 Members are Vice-Presidents of Sections of this Association, 

 and both still retain their connection with the Royal Society. 

 The one, Mr. James Barnard, is a Vice-President of our 

 Anthropological Section, and Vice-President also of the 

 Royal Society ; the other, the Hon. J. W. Agnew, is a 

 Vice-President of our Literature and Fine Arts Section, and 

 is now, and has been since July, 1861, the Honorary 

 Secretary of the Royal Society. Both of these gentlemen 

 have worked energetically and unremittingly in the cause of 

 science for upwards of fifty years, and I hope — and I think 

 I may venture to say that you, ladies and gentlemen, share 

 in that hope — that the day may be long distant when they 

 will have to cease from their labours. To-day must be a 

 proud day for them, as they throw their minds back for fifty 

 years and see how, from small beginnings in the different 

 Colonies, a growth has now been reached which makes it 

 possible for a grand gathering of this sort to be held in 

 Hobart in this year of grace 1892. 



The early pioneers in the cause of science were fully 

 impressed by the special necessity Avhich exists for the culti- 

 vation of scientific knowledge in a new country like Australia 

 in order to make the most of its natural advantages, being 

 alive to the fact that labour will be most productive when 

 the objects it aims at, and the form and method of their 

 applications, are in strictest accordance with the conditions 

 which nature has established. But the advantages which 

 they anticipated from the proceedings of this Society, and 

 their publication in the Colony, were by no means limited to 

 those which were purely material. Wise men were these 

 early pioneers, and what they say on this subject is as true 



