PAPERS. 



OPENING ADDEESS- OF HIS EXCELLENCY SIR J. H. 

 LEFROY, C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., PRESIDENT. 



[Bead 12th April, 188L] 



Gentlemen, — The profound sense which I have of my 

 slender qualification for the honourable position which the 

 constitution of this society assigns to Her Majesty's repre- 

 sentative, and of my inability to address you witli the authority 

 of a master in any field of the vast domain of science, shall 

 not tempt me to take up your time with vain excuses for 

 allowing myself to be placed in such a position. There has 

 been, as you are aware, a considerable interval of time since 

 my predecessor delivered an inaugural address upon a similar 

 occasion. I should be unwilling to see the custom of an occa- 

 sional presidential address abandoned, and I ask your in- 

 dulgence for the remarks which, at the request of your 

 Council, I have committed to writing, upon subjects of im- 

 mediate interest to this Society, however wanting in scientific 

 value. 



Museum and Gardens. — I am afraid that I cannot congratu- 

 late the Society upon the prosperous state of its finances. We 

 may be regarded in a double capacity : First, as a body of 

 men cultivating natural science for the sake of the pure and 

 inexhaustible pleasure derived from the study of nature, and 

 of its value to mankind, in that capacity we ought to be and 

 we are self-supporting ; secondly, as trustees for the public 

 in the maintenance and management of two institutions which 

 may bo fairly said to be necessary, and indeed indispensable 

 in these days, but in which we have only incidentally a greater 

 interest than the rest of the community, viz., the Museum 

 and Public Gardens. These the public ought to support, and 

 it admits the obligation. Does it do so adequately ? I fear 

 I must reply in the negative. Our Botanic Gardens are not 

 even mentioned in a recent review, by Professor Thisleton 

 Dyer, of the botanical enterprise of the Empire. Want of 

 skilled labour, arising from want of funds, throws them out 

 of all possible competition with other establishments. They 

 are defective in native plants, although about one-fourth of 

 our species are peculiar to Tasmania, and still more so in 

 plants eligible for industrial culture or naturalisation in this 

 island ; and I cannot but refer to the condition of the plant 

 labels, which are so necessary for popular instruction, as a 

 standing reproach. Very many interesting flowering trees 



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