PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 353 



Australian exploration of the adventurous kind is fast becoming 

 a thing of the past, within but a few years Australia has been 

 changed from a teirra incognita to a country whose coasts are 

 traversed by the world's steam ships, whose central interior has 

 been crossed by the electric telegraph wire, and whose broad 

 pastures have been stocked with cattle and sheep. What a 

 wonderful change has taken place during the past one hundred 

 years. No one, I venture to think, of those who first landed at 

 Sydney one hundred years ago, even in the wildest flight of his 

 imagination, could have imagined that the change would have 

 come so soon. And the question arises, what will Australia be 

 like in another hundred years ? It is scarcely possible to imagine, 

 and no great good can arif^e from such thoughts, except to 

 stimulate us to greater exertion. 



The old way of travelling by cart and coach, which is familiar 

 to many of us, has given way to the railway ; the old way of 

 shepherding our stock is fast disappearing ; the old way of tilling 

 and reaping has been superseded ; in fact, our present ways are 

 not the old ways, and so it must be in the work of exploration 

 also — the old way must be superseded by the new. No longer 

 must it be the love of adventure, and the fascination of discover- 

 ing new mountains and new rivers, but our aim must be to 

 examine and map the treasures of the earth. The man of science 

 must now with care, and with skill, and with slow but sure steps 

 follow in the path of the early geographical traveller, and to the 

 prosecution and accomplishment of this great work, I would 

 commend the government and people of this great country. 



The Geographical Section of this Association has a great work 

 before it, not perhaps so much in adventurous travel or in the 

 discovery of great natural features, but in scientific research and 

 minute and careful observation. The outside superficial work has 

 to a certain extent been accomplished, but the real scientific 

 investigation remains to be completed. 



I hope it may not happen in the future, as it has happened in 

 the past, that this great work is to be carried out under difficulties 

 for want of encouragement and support. 



Although the work of exploration and discovery has, to some 

 extent, been accomplished, it has been done under the greatest 

 difficulties, and the governments of tiie dififerent colonies have 

 never assisted the exploration of the continent in the way it 

 desei'ved. 



Asa rule, expeditions have been badly provided, have received 

 but scant encouragement, and have had but small governmental 

 support. Those in power have been unable to realise the position, 

 and have, as a general rule, not seen far enough ahead. 



