PROCEEDINGS, NOVEMBEE. XXIII 



anything of interest, and from this representative the Royal Society 

 •would receive reports. Much useful information would thus be gained 

 which might otherwise be lost. 



At one of our meetings Mr. Leonard Rodway called attention to the 

 necessity which exists for a complete handbook of the botany of Tas- 

 mania, and he is now actively engaged in compiliog such a work. It 

 is much needed, for the only two comprehensive works which exist on 

 the subject, viz , Hooker's great work, " Flora Tasmaniae," and "Flora 

 Australiensis, " by Baron Von Mueller and G. Bentham, which in- 

 cludes the whole Flora of Australia, are far beyond the means of many 

 of our botanical students and collectors. I need not say that Mr. 

 Rodway's praiseworthy and useful work has the hearty sympathy and 

 support of our Society. 



As I have now held the office of President of this Society since 1887, 

 and as this is the last occasion on which I shall have the privilege of 

 addressing you, I will briefly place before you what our tale of work 

 has been for this period. We have had 127 papers read before the 

 Society ; of these there were 14 in iistronomy, live in Chemistry and 

 Mineralogy, 20 in Geology and Palaeontology, 58 in Biology and 

 Botany, 13 in Geography, and 16 in Economic and Social Science and 

 Statistics, and the paper we have heard this evening on the Elgin 

 Marbles. Looking back over these six sessions, I think a good deal of 

 work has been done in them, and that there has been no falling off in the 

 health and vigour of the Society. I should have likea, had time per- 

 mitted, to have referred specially to some of this work, but as I 

 have passed it in review already in my annual addresses to you at the 

 close of each session, it perhaps is scarcely necessary that I should go 

 over the same ground again. I desire, however, this evening to invite 

 your attention to some directions, outside of our own operations, but 

 interesticg to us as a Society, in which progress has been made while I 

 have been your President. During that time the building in which we 

 BOW are has been extended by the addition of a new wing. The founda- 

 tion stone of this addition was laid by that good friend of the Museum 

 and of the Royal Society, Dr, Agnew, on December 23, 1886, and I had 

 the privilege of declaring it open on May 22, 1889. This increase in 

 space has been of the greatest use, not only in enabling a better disposal 

 of objects of interest to be made for exhibition, but also for the 

 accommodation of the rapidly growing additions to the Museum collec- 

 tion which, without an increase of space, could not have been exhibited 

 at all. But the great feature of the new wing was that it provided an 

 Art Gallery. Many valuable works of art have been placed in this 

 gallery on loan, and a considerable number of valuable presentations 

 have recently been made to it. Among them, I would refer to a water- 

 colour scene in Italy, presented by Sir Lambert Dobson ; an oil paint- 

 ing, by E. J. Poynter, R.A.; and a water-colour by E. M. Wimperis, 

 presented by Miss Ada Wilson ; and a series of landscapes, depicting 

 the scenery of the western Highlands of Tasmania, by our celebrated 

 local artist, Mr. W. C. Piguenit, presented by the Government. A 

 large number of students avail themselves of the privilege of copying 

 the worKs of art exhibited in the gallery, and there can be no question 

 that a taste and love for art is being generated in our midst, which, aa 

 time goes on, must infuse some strain of its elevating and refining in- 

 fluence into the national character of the future. Merely to stroll 

 through the gallery and look at its works of art has an elevating and 

 refining tendency, and I am glad to know that the attendance, both at 

 the Art Gallery and the Museum is steadily increasing. The Curator 

 informs me that it now amounts to about 1,000 a week. It is not only 

 in Hobart that progress has been made in this direction. At Laun- 

 ceston, also, a new Museum and Art Gallery have been established, 

 "Which 1 had the privilege of declaring open on 29th April, 1891. This 



