of tlieir journey that the world has seen. 

 The entente cordial© between England 

 and France in politics has developed the 

 entente municipale and the interchange 

 of hospitalities on a vast scale between 

 p-arliamentary and miinrcipai represen- 

 tatives of English and French politics, 

 and interchange of visits by large parties 

 of workers crossing political borders has 

 established the germs of an international 

 procedure, from which fiome hope may be 

 drawn for an era of universal peace, and 

 for some movement towards the general re- 

 duction of armaments. It has been reaJis- 

 ed in England as well as here that single 

 member constituencies produce startling 

 anomalies, and a very disproportionate 

 reoiesentation of the will of the people. 

 Theoretically, no greater service could 

 be rendered to the demO'Cracy than by 

 devising and enacting a satisfactory sys- 

 tem of proportional lepre^entation. Tas- 

 mania has in the past been foremost in 

 giving an example in this line of pro- 

 gress, and the question is one which may 

 again deserve attention on scientific 

 grounds. The propo>;al to build a railway 

 to the summit of Mount Wellington is a 

 step in the policy of advertising Tas- 

 mania and its peerless, climate, which 

 my Ministers have as closely to heart as 

 1 have myself, and the Tasmanian Tour- 

 ist Association may be congratulated in 

 the application of' science in its meth- 

 ods. In conclusic'n, I venture to hope 

 that this Eoyal Society of Tasmania may, 

 in the session now opened, contribute its 

 share of work, in its special sphere, to- 

 wards the advancement of the pnogrese of 

 this communitv. 



Mr. E. M. Johnston, I.S.O., F.S.S., said 

 it was generally supposed that the Eoyal 

 Society was limited to the consideration 

 of topics dealing with natural history, 

 and he had often been reproached w'tli 

 ha\"ing introduced qirestions of an 

 economic character, which were regarded 

 as outside the society's work : but he 

 thoirght that the varied interests of man 

 were as nuich entitled to their serious 

 consideration as the vagaries of a bacil- 

 lus, and he was glad, therefore, that His 

 Excellency had drawn attention in his 

 address to a number of matters which 

 affected Tasmania in many direct and in- 

 direct ways. In considering the question 

 of price of tin, to which His Excellency 

 had referred in his opening remarks, they 

 must remember that that was determined 

 by the cost of production at the worst 

 advantage. He was glad to say that there 



was a prospect of the poorer tin fields,- 

 which were of sirch vast extent in Tas- 

 mania, being made profitable, from which, 

 great benefit would result to the State. 

 His Excellency had referred to the great 

 progress that had been made in various 

 ways. This led him to think of the tre- 

 mendous progi-ess that had been made by 

 England dnring the past century, at the 

 end of wliich she had a population of 

 42,000,000, far better clothed and fed than 

 when the population was very much smal- 

 ler. This was the result of the great 

 discoveries that had been made, which, 

 had annihilated distance and time, and 

 brought the producers and the consumers 

 closer together. 



Senator Dobson then moved a hearty 

 vote of thanks to His Excellency for hi." 

 interesting address. Whenever His Excel- 

 lency addressed them they could not but 

 realise what an intelligent interest he 

 took in all that affected' the well-being of 

 the island. His Excellency had shown 

 them how very many important affairs 

 going on in the world affected Tasmania, 

 either directly or indirectly. He quite 

 agi-eed with 'what His Excellency had 

 said as to the necessity of having the very 

 latest ships for their naval defence. He 

 Avas glad His Excelleacy did not 

 share the pe.?simistic views as to 

 there being a slump in the fruit 

 market. He (Senator Dobson) had been 

 pessimistic once, but was so no longer. No 

 industry here had succeeded so well as the 

 fruit industry, and though the other 

 States were vieing with us, we (^hould 

 remember it was Tasmania who pioneered 

 the market, and showed that apples could 

 be transported from one end of the world 

 to the other. He had always thought that 

 England was first as a builder of ships,. 

 but he had recently seen an article show- 

 ing that Germany was on a par ivdth us, 

 both as to the speed and size of the ships 

 she built, and as to the perfect mechan- 

 ism of the machinery. He was glad 

 that His Excellency had referred to the 

 projected aerial railway to Mount Wel- 

 lington. He believed that it would be a 

 great success, that it woirld attract tour- 

 ists from all parts of Australia, and that 

 it would prove to be an advertisement 

 worthy of our Yankee cousins. 



The vote of thanks was carried by 

 acclamation, after which those present 

 were entertained in the trophy-room by 

 the members of the Lady Hamilton 

 Literary Society, and a very enjoyable 

 Lalf-hour was spent. 



