14 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



the Colony ; but little has hitherto been possible in the 

 direction of making these gardens a place of systematic 

 illustration of all the plant life which Tasmania is capable of 

 supporting, and of making them, further, a centre for the 

 botanical instruction of the public. The steps which should 

 be taken to secure these objects have been well detailed in a 

 Report made by the Director, Mr. Abbott, to the Govern- 

 ment, in 1885. The Government thus are in full possession 

 of what ought to be done ; and, as our revenue increases by 

 the development of the resources of the country, particularly 

 the mineral resources, which are now giving such extra- 

 ordinary promise of wealth, I feel sure that more funds will 

 be allotted to the support of these gardens ; while the 

 additional space required for their development could easily 

 be gained by extending the gardens further into the Domain, 

 and, perhaps, by a small curtailment of the extensive grounds 

 now allotted to the Governor's residence. 



In a necessarily brief review like the present, it is obviously 

 impossible for me to refer in detail to the multifarious work 

 of the Society. The volumes of proceedings are full of 

 interesting papers — geographical, ethnological, astronomical, 

 and meteorological — and contain some valuable work on 

 economic science. Time would fail me to do more than 

 simply to state that much work of value and usefulness has 

 been submitted on these subjects, and that many of the 

 papers on them exhibit careful observation and much skill, 

 ingenuity, and originality in treatment. But, having regard 

 to the fact that the main reason why the Royal Society came 

 into existence was to investigate the physical characteristics of 

 the Island, I think you will expect that I should sketch briefly 

 the progress made, since its inception, in the knowledge 

 which we possess of the geology, mineralogy, and natural 

 history of Tasmania. But, before doing so, I should like to 

 refer to two directions in which the operations of the Society 

 have a great interest and value to the community at large. 

 First, it has been the means, mainly through the excellent 

 work of Mr. J. B. Walker, of bringing together the scattered 

 records of the early discovery and settlement of the Island ; 

 and second, it has taken a leading part in the acclimatisation 

 of SalmonidcB in Tasmanian waters. This latter has been a 

 most successful and useful work. For, whether or not we 

 have succeeded in reproducing the true Salmo solar, our 

 rivers and lakes are now fast becoming stocked with Salmonoids 



