president's address. II 



We have now to wait in patience and in faith for the return 

 of the courageous and steadfast wanderers, encouraged by strong 

 hopes of their success in most, if not in all their enterprises. In 

 the meantime we may not forget, even if we cannot lighten, the 

 anxious solicitude of Mrs. David and the wives, other relatives, 

 and friends of the absent explorers and investigators, both in 

 Australia and in the Old Land. 



We have to congratulate Professors Hill and Wilson on the 

 publication of their monograph on the development of Ornitho- 

 rhynchus in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 

 of England. 



I believe that we may claim that this Society is doing a very 

 useful, though unostentatious, work for the community. We 

 combine together to carry out the work designed by our liberal- 

 minded and liberal-handed founder, Sir William Macleay, by 

 studying in precision and in detail our rocks, our fauna and our 

 flora, and by publishing the fresh information so obtained in our 

 Proceedings. Each year a volume of some 800 pages, carefully 

 edited and comprehensively indexed, and illustrated by many 

 plates, bears witness to the industry, the enthusiasm and the 

 patience of the Members and of the Secretary. We hold that 

 our highest duty is to pure Science, to extend our knowledge of 

 Nature for its own sake. This object must be the special care 

 of such Societies as ours, for individual effort is uuequal to the 

 task, and Governments will be unwilling, for } r ears at least, to 

 undertake it. It is this work that men of science all over the 

 world look to us to perform, and I think we may say that they 

 recognise that the Society is doing this work with credit. 



But all Science is liable to have a practical bearing. And 

 our members, in their work published by the Society, and in 

 work done outside it, have shown that they are by no means 

 neglecting the practical needs of the community. During the 

 year Professor David has completed his magnificent Memoir on 

 the Northern Coalfield. Our Macleay Fellow, Mr. Jensen, ha* 

 single-handed carried out a geological survey of the Warrum- 



