for the year 1882. xiii 



a growing desire in the community to become more familiar 

 with the sciences and with the arts. New societies and 

 schools have sprung up, and are flourishing, not only in Mel- 

 bourne, but also in the country towns. The older societies 

 are expanding, and the working classes are evincing a genuine 

 and earnest desire to obtain the teachings of sciences as aids 

 to their handicrafts. 



At our last meeting I spoke of the establishment of a 

 Field Naturalists' Club in Melbourne. This continues to 

 thrive, and offers the means, not only of acquiring knowledge 

 in the natural history of our colony, but also of most 

 pleasurable recreation of those members who can join in the 

 periodic excursions in search of specimens of the animal or 

 vegetable kingdom. 



A new society has lately been started in Ballarat, under 

 the name of " The Ballarat Field Club Science Society/' which 

 already contains about eighty members. Although this 

 society is founded for the purpose of investigation and dis- 

 cussion in the natural sciences, it at present confines its 

 attention chiefly to geological and mineralogical subjects. 

 Lectures are delivered, papers read and discussed, and, like 

 our Melbourne Field Naturalists' Club, excursions are 

 periodically made to elucidate special physiographical points 

 or for the collection of specimens. I hear also of a 

 Philological Society having been formed in Ballarat. 



Affiliated to the Sandhurst School of Mines, a " Science 

 Society" was established some two yeart ago, of which our 

 talented fellow-member, Mr. P. H. MacGillivray, M. A., is pre- 

 sident. This society is most effectually fostering study of 

 the natural sciences in that part of the colony by essays, 

 papers, and discussions at the monthly meetings. 



I am sure we all join in wishing success and good pro- 

 gress to these young societies. At the same time I may 

 venture to warn them, from my long experience of these 

 matters, that it is only by earnest work and persistent effort 

 on the part of the members that they will make any real 

 progress. Our various training institutions furnish the ele- 



A 



