PRESIDENTS ADDRESS — SECTION C. 81 



M.A., Morton Allport, T. Hainsworth, and many other 

 enthusiastic workers in Tasmanian Geology. 



The Government ot Tasmania have acted wisely, in the 

 author's ojsinion, in appointing a Government Geologist in 

 the person of Mr. A. Montgomery, M.A., for it is only by 

 systematic geological survey work, carried out under the 

 supervision of a con)))etent officer, that such problems as 

 those of the relations of the diabasic greenstones of the Tiers 

 to the Coal Measures of Tasmania can be determined, — a 

 question of vast commercial as well as scientific interest. It 

 is to be hoped that during the visit of the Geological Section 

 of the Association to Tasmania something may be done by 

 the combined eftbrts of Tasmanian, New Zealand, and Aus- 

 tralian geologists towards elucidating this great problem, at 

 all events in the neighbourhood of Hobart. The author 

 ventures to think that he is expressing the views of the 

 geological visitors to this meeting of the Association in saying 

 that many of them, at any rate, have come to Hobart in the 

 hope of learning something new from Tasmanian geologists 

 about the geology of their own country ; and in return for 

 the information which the latter have already so kindly 

 volunteered to give, the visitors ai"e ready to place at their 

 disposal the best of their knowledge, which, in whatsoever 

 portion of Australasia it may have been gained, has been 

 gained in some part of what was once in past geological time 

 one and the same great Australasian Continent, and it would 

 consequently be impossible for geologists to thorougidy under- 

 stand its past faunas, floras, and physical geography if they 

 studied them only within the artificial or natural barriers 

 which now separate the Australasian Colonies. Geologists 

 perhaps more than any other scientific men in Australasia 

 need federation, and they have to thank the promoters and 

 supporters of the Australasian Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science that that federation is now an accomphshed 

 fact. 



