TCTcii President's Address 



whicli may be mentioned as those of the goldfields at 

 Stawell, Creswick, and on the Mitchell River, Gippsland. 

 Among the valuable publications of this department, you 

 will be pleased to learn that there are most interesting and 

 exhaustive reports by our fellow-members, Professor M'Coy, 

 on Fossil Specimens ; Mr. Cosmo Newbery, On the 

 Analysis of Assays, and the Exavnination of Minerals ; 

 and Mr. William Nicholas, on Some Characteristics of 

 Auriferous Quartz Reefs or Veins. 



The rapid denudation of our Forests, and almost reckless 

 destruction of our indigenous timber, has from time to time 

 been strongly and warningly commented upon by scientific 

 men and by the public press of the colony; but as the want 

 of useful timber does not immediately stare the community 

 in the face, it is allowed to pass. If any of you have ever 

 seen, as I have too often done, the gigantic timber trees 

 lying rotting in some of the ranges near Melbourne, where 

 they have been felled by saw-mill proprietors, but never 

 used, and in many cases magnificent trees with inferior 

 trees felled by rival proprietors across them to prevent their 

 being readily removed to the mills of those who felled them, 

 you will at once admit that the term " reckless destruction" 

 is not too strong. The necessary clearing away of timber 

 for agriculture is rapidly altering the face of the country, 

 and will doubtless alter the climate, most probably for the 

 worse ; but the indiscriminate denudation of our mountain 

 forests will certainly tend to reduce the precipitation of 

 water on our soil, which already we often eagerly hope for 

 and sometimes pray for. 



Some legislation in this direction has been attempted, and 

 it devolves on the Department of Agriculture to put what 

 power Parliament has given it into force. This department, 

 which is in charge of Mr. Wallis, the Secretary for Agricul- 

 ture, is doing all in its power to stem the tide of mischief, 



