352 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



Section E.— GEOGR APH Y. 



President of the Section, The Hon. John Forrest, C.M.G., F.R.G.S.y 

 &c., Surveyor-General of Western Australia, &c. 



Thursday, August 30. 

 The President delivered the following Address : — 



I DO not think it advisable on this occasion to confine my remarks 

 to a particular subject, as is usual in old established societies, as I 

 think a few general observations on subjects within the wide scope 

 of the Geographical Section of the Association will be moi*e useful 

 on the present occasion. 



The map of Australia, which you see before you, must be familiar 

 to all persons who claim Australia as their home. It is a vast 

 territory, being about thirty-three times as large as England and 

 Scotland, about the same size as the United States of America, 

 and about two-thirds the size of the continent of Europe. 



The present territorial divisions are five, viz., New South Wales, 

 Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia, 

 and each of these divisions has its own independent government, 

 though the laws of each difier but slightly from one another. 



There is not time on this occasion, nor do I think it is either 

 necessary or advisable that I should place before you how Aus- 

 tralia has been little by little discovered, how its coasts have been 

 carefully examined, and its interior has been traversed and mapped, 

 for these things should be known to all who claim Australia as 

 the land of their birth, or of their adoption. It is not given to 

 many to be the means of opening up new territories, to describe 

 for the first time new districts, and to be the first to gaze upon 

 lands hitherto only known to the savage, and of the list of explorers 

 who have indelibly inscribed their names on the map of Australia, 

 but few now remain amongst us. They have, however, left us 

 their journals and their maps, and these have been collected by 

 able hands, and form a most interesting and complete history of 

 the early days of our civilisation and progress. 



To the young these records must always prove interesting and 

 fascinating, and I should like to see the history of Australian 

 exploration introduced into our schools, and carefully taught : for 

 what more useful work can there be than the history of the way 

 the continent we live in, and which we love so well, has gradually 

 been opened up to the enterprise and commerce of the world. 



