Iviii President's Address 



hitherto been an insufficient sum left to print our Trans- 

 actions without other aid. The Government has been 

 solicited for help every year since 1867, when the 

 last aid was granted to us by Parliament. The council 

 hope, however, that their request this year will be 

 acceded to. I am happy to state, moreover, that 

 (many arrears of subscriptions having been received of 

 late) the financial condition of the Society is just now better 

 than it has been for years. It is intended therefore, at all 

 events to at once print the arrears of Transactions, and the 

 council trust that they may be able to henceforward 23ublish 

 promptly and regularly the proceedings of our meetings, 

 which they will be quite able to do if the Parliament 

 resumes its small annual grant-in-aid. 



Our last anniversary meeting was held on August 14, 

 1871. Since that time the Society has held eight ordinary 

 meetings. On September 11, a valuable paper " On Ocean 

 Waves, and their Action on Floating Bodies," was con- 

 tributed by Mr. Deverill. Mr. MacGeorge also read a paper, 

 contributed by Mr. Home, of Adelaide, " On a Linear 

 Method of Finding the Stability of Ships ;" and Mr. Pain, 

 on "Aboriginal Art and its Decadence in Australasia, 

 Polynesia, and Oceanica." The meeting of October 9 was 

 occupied with Mr. MacGeorge's account of " Changes in Eta 

 Argus," and Mr. G. Foord's "Areometer for Measuring 

 Specific Gravities." On November ] 3, our next meeting, 

 the Eev. W. Kelly and Mr. Bosisto contributed j^apers, the 

 former " On a Method of Combining Marsh's Test for 

 Arsenic with Eeinsch's, so as to secure very reliable results ;" 

 the latter " On the Cultivation of Mentha Piperita in 

 Victoria." On November 22, it will be remembered, the 

 Australian Eclipse Expedition started from Melbourne. 

 Our next meeting was a special one held on January 22, and 

 was devoted to matters connected with the Eclipse Expedi- 



