176 president's address — section I. 



are good enough they will be bought. A mistake may be 

 made here and there. Please the public and the caterers for 

 the public will buy. Novices in Literature often bother their 

 friends for an introduction to an editor. It is quite unneces- 

 sary. The editor is anxious to procure the best wares for his 

 magazine or ]japer — is looking out for them. Let the novice 

 send what is decidedly good, and it will suit the editor, though 

 possibly, if the article is in a bad handwriting, if it has a long- 

 exordium, it will go into the waste-paper basket. What is 

 good in writing, in painting, or in sculpture will be bought. 



It might be well to mention sundry ways in which this 

 Section might render good service. The first that I heard 

 proposed was at Sydney three years ago by Mr, Bernard 

 Wise, formerly Attorney-General. It was the preparation 

 of a complete bibliography of Australasia. That is a hand- 

 book which is wanted, which would be within compass, and 

 once done might easily be kept up. It could hardly be 

 compiled by private enterprise, for its value depending on 

 thoroughness, it would take much labour and need much 

 co-operation, and it is very questionable whether it would 

 pay. Perhaps such a work might best be carried out by 

 fellow-work on the part of the Librarians of the great Public 

 Libraries of Australia. It ought to contain early references 

 to Australia from various sources ; ought to contain parts of 

 books as well as complete books, the many accounts of travel, 

 the books on Australasia as a whole, the books that describe 

 separate Colonies. There should be a tabulation of Magazine 

 Literature, that part of Poole s Index magnified. There 

 should be a calendar of Blue-books. There should even be 

 a calendar of what is known as light literature, the fiction 

 that deals with Australia, for the world no longer even 

 professes to despise novels. Though the list of these would 

 be long the task would not be difficult, for it is only of late 

 years that the novelist has turned his eyes towards our shores 

 and paid us such overwhelming attention. 



Another matter to which the Section might draw attention 

 is the study of the linguistics of our part of the world. After 

 the Melbourne meeting two years ago I remember reading 

 an indignant letter in a newspaper denouncing this Section, 

 but especially the literary professors in the Australian 

 Universities, for not interpreting Literature and Fine Art as 

 the study of the Aboriginal languages. My withers were 

 unwrung, for I was in England at the time of the meeting. 

 It seems generally allowed that this Section is beyond all 



