ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. li 
This report having been first agreed to by the Council, was brought 
up at the monthly meeting on 11th October, and there discussed 
and adopted. Its preamble states :— 
“ Considering the languishing condition of this Society, we are of 
opinion that some effort should be made to restore its vitality and 
raise it to the important and useful position that it ought to occupy.” 
The report goes on to say that it is not easy to account for the 
decline of the Society, but that it may be partly owing to its name, 
which conveys the impression that the subjects discussed are of an 
abstruse and exclusive character. The Report recommends that 
the name should be changed to “ Royal Society,” and an outline is 
given of a proposed constitution. 
A Committee was then appointed to draw up rules, and appli- 
cation was made to the Governor for sanction to the change of 
name, but the answer received was that the application must be 
forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was not 
till the last meeting of 1866 (December 12) that acopy of Lord 
Carnarvon’s despatch, dated 24th September, was laid before the 
Society. It contained these words—“Her Majesty has been 
graciously pleased* * *to sanction and approve of the Philosophical 
Society in future assuming the title of the Royal Society of New 
South Wales.” Thus the change was finally completed, and the 
name Philosophical, which had been considered inappropriate, was 
dropped. | 
Prosperity however did not come witha rush to the new organi- 
sation. Still there was a decided improvement, for in 1867 the 
new accessions were twenty, and the income got up to about £80. 
If we compare this sum with the published list of members for 1867, 
which contains 108 names, we are obliged to infer that nearly half 
the members had not paid their subscriptions. In 1868 the new 
_ Members were thirty-seven ; in 1869 only fourteen ; in 1870 they 
Tose again to twenty-one, and the income was £112; but in the 
following year only five new members joined, and the income fell 
: ____ to £80, while the expenditure was £111. 
