Report of Meetings of the Society, 



Meeting held January i6th. — His Excellency Caven- 

 dish Boyle, C.M.G., President, in the chair. 

 Members present, 32. 

 Eleflions. — Corresponding Member: Mr. F.V.McCon- 

 nell. 



Members : Revd. J. T. Godfrey and Mr. 

 S. M. Mitchell. 



Associates : Messrs. Reginald Brooke, 

 H. C. Castagne, C. T. Holder, E. Stewart and J. W^ 

 McPurgo. 

 The President addressed the meeting as follows: -- 

 " In opening the year's proceedings of this important 

 Society, to the Presidential chair of which I have had 

 the great honour of being ele6led by your votes, on the 

 nomination of my friend Mr. E. C. Luard, I feel much 

 diffidence. Previous inaugural addresses have been de- 

 livered by gentlemen intimately conne6led with the agri- 

 culture or the commerce, or with both, of the Colony. 

 They have had by long experience, at their fingers' ends, 

 the data and details which have enabled them to speak 

 with certainty, with accuracy, and without what our legal 

 friends call "digging for information," on those impor- 

 tant subjects. Now, I do not for an instant yield to 

 them in the interest taken in agriculture and commerce. 

 I hold that my interest is as keen and as lively as theirs. 

 For, the man who wishes the country well must of neces- 

 sity take an interest, and a very real one, in those two 

 fa6lors of its welfare, and I trust that my earnest desire 

 for the Colony's prosperity may be the cloak to-day for 



