The Anniversary Address of the 

 President, 



Professor Ralph Tate, Assoc. Lin. Soc, F.G.S. 



During the past year my leisure has been so severely and 

 continuously taxed for the service of the Society that it has 

 been impossible for me to prepare an address upon an appro- 

 priate subject for an occasion like the present. The theme 

 which I had selected early in the year on " The Relationship of 

 the Recent to the Tertiary Fauna of Australia," had to be 

 abandoned, because the collocation of published facts and the 

 determination of the specific and generic affinities of the fossils 

 with recent forms of life, which would be the groundwork of 

 the dissertation, proved to be a task that could not be accom- 

 plished within the time, except at the sacrifice of the perform- 

 ance of certain duties in my capacity as President of the 

 Society and co-Editor of its publications. 



In its stead I propose to take a retrospective glance at the 

 condition of our Society for the past three years, during which 

 time I have been honoured with the chief direction of its affairs, 

 and also to furnish a record of the current literature dealing 

 with the Natural History of Australia, more especially that 

 relating to this colony. 



The application made to the G-overnment last year for 

 pecuniary assistance has graciously been granted, and with the 

 additional means at its command the Society is strenuously 

 endeavouring to attain the main objects which it appears to me 

 it ought to have in view. 



One of its main objects ought ever to be to foster and per- 

 petuate the taste for natural history throughout the province. 

 And in this connection the Society, recognising the value and 

 importance of a corps of volunteers from whose local know- 

 ledge they may expect to derive benefit, has elaborated a 

 scheme for encouraging and directing the efforts of amateur 

 naturalists. The scheme has been published only within the 

 past month, and already a nucleus of workers has been formed. 

 It has been highly approved by those to whom it has been sub- 

 mitted, and the leading specialists among Australian natu- 

 ralists have freely consented to act as referees in their respec- 

 tive departments ; their names have purposely been withheld, 



