Vlll. PRESIDENT S 



It is true, however, that the matter has not been entirely neglected, for a 

 large amount of valuable infonnation has been collected and made available 

 by private indi\'iduals each working at his own particular group as a hobby. 

 What is capable of accomplishment is demonstrated by the fact that I have 

 been able, during the past twenty five yeai-s, to gather together the finest collec- 

 tion of Australian butterflies in the World. Other private individuals have 

 been able to do the same in their own special groups. The Entomological Branches 

 of the Department of Agriculture, whose work must be concerned primarily with 

 the economic side of the subject, have done excellent work in several of the 

 States, but the field is far too extensive for the limited staffs employed. 



In order to bring some constructive criticism on the question of a Zoological 

 Survey, I would suggest that immediate steps be taken by the Commonwealth 

 Government to institute a Federal Museum, one of the chief objects of which 

 would be the gathering together of specimens of Australian animals as well as 

 of accurate information concerning their distribution. When Canberra is ready 

 for occupation as the Federal Capital such a Museiun will be a necessity and 

 as the accumulation of material is a slow process no time should be lost in 

 making a beginning. Extensive accommodation would not be necessary for some 

 time to come as it is not suggested that the collections would be on view until 

 the Museum is properly established but they should be available for purposes 

 of study. A small beginning has already been made in this direction for I 

 understand that the Australian Museum is housing temporarily the fishes obtained 

 by the illfated Federal Trawler. I also venture to assert that in the event of 

 such a Museum being inaugurated, numerous private individuals would willingly 

 donate portions of their collections to foi-m the nucleus of what ultimately would 

 be a fine display of our native fauna. 



In the absence of any such scheme as the above we would have to look to 

 our State Museums for a co-ordinated Zoological Sui-vey. Much would be 

 possible in this direction by concerted action on their part. In the early days, 

 the Museum staffs 'were small and of necessity composed of general naturalists 

 rather than specialists; with increasing collections, staffs were increased and 

 there was opportunity for specialization. Even now, however, a single man has 

 often to cover far too wide a field to do really good work in any one branch. 

 I would suggest to the authorities of the various Australian Museums that in 

 future care should be taken not to duplicate the appointment of a specialist in 

 any one branch. - For example, there are entomologists in four of the Museums 

 and it could be easily agxeed that no two of them should be specialists in the 

 same group. There would then be in Australia specialists in four different 

 insect groups and there should be no difficulty in arranging for each to deter- 

 mine the species of his own special group for all four Museums. By mutual 

 arrangement, a similar scheme might well be made to apply to the whole of the 

 Zoologists in our Museums. At the present time the members of the Museum 

 Staffs constitute only a small proportion of the naturalists in Australia, there 

 being many private individuals who have taken up the study of special gTOups 

 as a hobby. I would suggest that the authorities of the Museums might make 

 much more use of these private indiriduals than has been done in the past. 



The number of new animals awaiting discovery in Australia is veiy far 

 from exhausted, though, of course, this is chiefly among-st the lower foi-ms of 

 animal life. One would think that after such entomologists as Meyrick, Helms, 

 Turner and Goldfinch had visited Mt. Kosciusko very few moths would be left 

 undiscovered on that Plateau, but we find that Goldfinch secured over twenty 



