ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
By the Hon. Proressor Smitu, C.M.G., &ke., &e., President. 
[Delivered to the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, 4 May, 1881.] 
GENTLEMEN, 
At this the close of my Presidential year—the first year, I 
may remind you, in which the Chair has been occupied by an elected 
President—it becomes my duty to go through the form of an 
Annual Address, before proceeding to the more pleasing ceremony 
of laying down office and introducing my successor. It is a wise 
provision in our by-laws that the President can hold office for 
only one year ; but in spite of that, I fear that this annual address 
will tend to become more and more irksome, and may on some 
occasions stand in the way of desirable members taking office,— 
members who may not have much leisure nor much fluency, and 
who might look upon the task of composing an address as more 
than counterbalancing the honor of the position, and the gratify- 
ing sense of enjoying the confidence of their fellow-members. I 
now throw out the suggestion for the benefit of my successors, 
that while the Society is comparatively young, and its forms and 
routine yet in the plastic condition, it might be well to accept as 
an annual address a mere statement of the condition of the 
Society and its work of the preceding year. Occasionally, no 
doubt, the President might be glad to embrace the opportunity 
of stating his views on some questions of general interest, 
not perhaps well suited for a paper of the usual character at a 
‘Monthly meeting, and not intended for discussion ; and in such a 
case as that, when the President has really sdmething to say, 
Me members will doubtless be pleased to listen, but in ordinary 
