10 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



now as it was fifty years ago : — " The circulation of a 

 Journal of Science, upon matters of local interest, among the 

 inhabitants of this rising country, is calculated to produce a 

 most salutary effect upon their character: by leading them 

 to the study of Nature, and habituating them to reflect on the 

 interesting objects around them, it would afford valuable 

 exercise to their mental powers, and open up new and pro- 

 ductive sources of pleasure and enjoyment. The situation of 

 a settler in Australia is particularly in want of such a 

 stimulus. He is not unfrequently a man of intelligence and 

 education ; but, living in comparative seclusion, and far 

 removed from the stirring scenes and transactions of European 

 society, his mind is apt to become relaxed and lose its former 

 tone and vigour, or to be narrowed and contracted by 

 exclusive converse with petty details, or, still worse, to be 

 given up to the sordid passion for accumulating wealth. In 

 such circumstances, whatever would tend, like the Journal in 

 question, to excite his attention to, and lead him to find an 

 interest and pleasure in, the events and appearances of sur- 

 rounding Nature, could not fail to be peculiarly beneficial. 

 It would serve to alleviate the monotony and tediousness of 

 his situation — to prevent the inactivity and consequent 

 deterioration of his mental faculties — to counteract the 

 powers of ungenerous and debasing passions, and to add the 

 dignity of a cultivated and well-informed mind to the 

 simplicity of rural occupations and sequestered life." 



Among the earliest papers furnished to the Tasmanian 

 Society were — " Remarks on the Indigenous Vegetable 

 Productions of Tasmania available as Food for Man," by 

 Ronald C. Gunn ; " A Catalogue of the Birds of Tasmania," 

 by the Rev. T. J. Ewing ; "Description of a Collection of 

 Fish found at Port Arthur," by John Richardson ; " Irri- 

 gation of Tasmania," by Captain A. F. Cotton ; Series of 

 Meteorological Observations at Hobart, Launceston, and Port 

 Arthur;" " Characteristics of the Aborigines of Tasmania," 

 by the Rev. T. Dove ; " On the First Discovery of Tasmania 

 in 1642," by the Rev. J. P. Gell ; " On the Teeth and Poison 

 Apparatus of Snakes," by Dr. J. W. Agnew — who, as I have 

 said, is now one of our Vice-Presidents ; and " On the 

 Statistics of Van Diemen's Land," by Mr. James Barnard, 

 another of our Vice-Presidents. You will observe, ladies 

 and gentlemen, that the range of subjects, even in these early 

 days, was fairly extensive. I have merely quoted the titles 



