lxxiv President's Address 



Cooper's Creek, and maintain it as long as any of the relief 

 parties were in the field and might want aid. 



All these parties aider! greatly in the unexampled advance 

 made in knowledge of Australian geography, and the 

 energy and liberality of the Victorian Government cannot 

 fail to redound greatly to the credit of the colony at home, 

 when it is known that Victoria's share of the expenses of 

 the explorations was (£35,000) thirty-five thousand pounds, 

 while the only other contributor, Queensland, gave but 

 (£500) five hundred pounds, and that to be spent within 

 her own boundaries. 



To Mr. Howitt's party, as you all know, it was alone 

 permitted to give any succour to the missing explorers, and 

 he found on his return to Cooper's Creek that the only 

 survivor was King, a brave young soldier, formerly in the 

 Indian army, and who having tended Burke and Wills to 

 their death, ana preserved their papers with a faithful devo- 

 tion and constant heroism worthy of the Victorian Cross, 

 was found living in a deplorable state among the natives. 



The Government and Parliament in voting a public 

 funeral for the leaders who fell, and £4,000 to erect a monu- 

 ment to their honour as well as any other mark of respect 

 that could be suggested, and granting the survivor King a 

 pension of £180 a-year for life, have shown a noble spirit of 

 appreciation of the services of the explorers ; and I trust, after 

 what I have said, that it will be clearly seen that for the 

 misfortune at the close of the Expedition no shadow of 

 blame directly or indirectly can attach to the Exploration 

 Committee of the Royal Society. 



Passing now to the consideration of Victorian scientific 

 works not immediately under the control of the Royal 

 Society, though for the most part carried on by officers or 

 members of our body, I will first refer, as connected with 

 the highest branches of exact science, to the Astronomical, 



