206 Proceedings, &c., for 1872. 



Annual Report. 



The subjoined report of the Council for the session of 1871 was 

 read by the Secretary : — 



" Your Council desires, to bring most prominently under notice the 

 reasons why it has been unable to incur during the past year any 

 expenditure for the purpose of printing the Transactions of the 

 Society. In the first place your Council has had to discharge several 

 accounts incurred in previous years for furnishing, binding, &c., and 

 has not been able even to reduce the account, £106 lis. 6d., for 

 printing the last number of the Transactions published at the end of 

 1868. That debt was only incurred in the anticipation that the 

 hope held out, when £100 was granted by the Government in 1867, 

 that the subsidy would thenceforward be made annually, would be 

 fulfilled. It was upon this understanding that the list of learned 

 societies in Europe and America, with whom the Society exchanges 

 publications, was so largely extended ; and your Council considers 

 that it is deej^ly to be deplored that for want of such a trifling 

 yearly subsidy, the engagements thus entered into have not been 

 carried into execution. The invitations to exchange publications 

 with this Society met with a most liberal response ; and scientific 

 journals and publications of the highest value have since been 

 regularly received from every part of Europe, America, India, &c. 

 Inquiries have also been received latterly as to numbers of this 

 Society's Transactions which were presumed to have miscarried. 



" The position of the Royal Society of Victoria, in being deprived 

 of state support, is altogether singular. In all the neighbouring 

 colonies the local scientific bodies are more or less liberably 

 subsidised, and your Council trusts that measures may be successfully 

 adopted by its successor to secure by a Government grant the means 

 of continuing the exchange of publications, the commencement of 

 which has placed the Society under a distinct obligation to do so if 

 practicable. Notwithstanding the great disadvantage of being 

 unable to print the Transactions, your Council is pleased to be 

 able to report that the proceedings of the Society have not been 

 wanting in interest, nor has its reputation otherwise been allowed to 

 suffer. The monthly meetings during the session were fully 

 occupied with interesting papers, and the successful organisation of 

 the Eclipse expedition has contributed to maintain its reputation 

 abroad, and this affords ground for satisfaction, although the actual 

 results to science in general were of the smallest. After the business 

 in connexion with the expedition was confided to your Council, eight 

 special , and several ordinary meetings, with a more than average 

 attendance, were almost entirely devoted to completing the 

 negotiations for the purpose. Owing to the exertions of your 

 Council, and particularly of your president, and to the liberal con- 

 tributions of various Australian Governments, the expedition was 

 provided with ample means of profiting by the occasion to the 



