16 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
This Society is doing what it can to encourage original work, by 
offering its medal and money prize for the best original communica- 
tions upon certain specified subjects; but the amount which 
we can spare for this out of our limited income is only £100 a 
year, and we are quite aware that the Society’s medal and the sum 
of £25 will not repay any one for perhaps years of labour ; but it 
is hoped that the recognition which the award carries with it may 
serve as a slight additional stimulus, and help to promote the taste 
for original investigation. 
Up to the present time we have had but few researches of suffi- 
cient merit to entitle us to make the award. Iam, however, con- 
fident that good is being done, and I do not think we should 
lose heart; attention is directed to such matters, and doubt- 
less work is being done, in response to our suggestions, of 
which we as yet know nothing. The writers of the many papers 
which failed to reach the required standard, although perhaps 
disappointed, have not suffered by the failure of their attempts, 
but on the contrary, have doubtless been much benefited by their 
efforts, and our stock of information upon those subjects will in 
the future probably owe much to their apparently disregarded 
work. We have had inquiries from scientific chemists in England 
and elsewhere for supplies of material, notably of the gums and 
resins, the so-called “kerosene shale,” and of the iron and other 
ores of the Colony. Arrangements have been made in two cases 
‘to furnish a supply of the kerosene shale. I may perhaps here 
‘mention that attempts have been made, by repeated advertise- 
ments and otherwise, to obtain samples of the New South Wales 
gums and resins to supply those who wish to examine them, and 
for our Museums, but unsuccessfully up to the present ; hence it 
might be thought that the Colony is not so rich in such products 
as is usually stated. : 
I regard this difficulty of obtaining samples of gums and resins, 
true to name, as an additional proof of the ignorance which exists 
with regard to the natural products of the Colony. It is quite 
certain that but little use is made of them. Of the large number of 
