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ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
By Curistopner Routestoy, Esq., Vice-President. 
[Delivered to the Royal Society of N.S.W., 1 May, 1878.] 
GENTLEMEN, 
The absence of our highly esteemed Senior Vice-President 
must be a subject of great regret to all of you, more particularly 
when it is known that his absence is not a matter of choice, but 
of necessity, forced upon him by failing health, and it is 
especially so to myself, upon whom devolves the duty of opening 
this year’s Session. I may venture to say that nothing has con- 
duced more to the success of the Royal Society, and rendered its 
meetings at the same time both instructive and popular, than 
meeting under the presidency of a gentleman of such varied 
scientific attainments and general mental accomplishments as 
are concentrated in the person of the Rev. W. B. Clarke. 
Whilst the Institution affords ample scope for every class of 
workers amongst us—for the man of reading as well as the geologist 
or naturalist—the laborious collector of facts must always hold 
the first rank amongst us; and foremost in this rank stands the 
name of our venerable Vice-President, whose researches into the 
geological formation of this country would fill volumes, and 
- whose contributions to this Society have done so much to illus- 
trate the Natural History of Australia. 
In a new country like this, whilst we may not, perhaps, look 
for great original thinkers or investigators of the calibre of 
Darwin, Tyndall, or Huxley, we may be well satisfied to have 
amongst us so accomplished a geologist as Mr. Clarke; and 
although it may be true that his unobtrusive labours in the 
field of science have not met with that public recognition to 
