2 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
which, in the opinion of his friends and admirers, their impor- 
tance entitles them, I venture to suggest that this arises rather 
from the lack of scientific knowledge amongst us than from any 
lack of generous sympathy or appreciation of the services which 
he has rendered to the country. But however this may be, it 
must be as gratifying to our venerable friend as to ourselves to 
know that his labours have met with flattering commendation 
_ from the most eminent men of science in Europe—that his name 
has been enrolled in the list of Members of some of the chief 
Scientific Societies of the Mother Country, and occupies a high 
place amongst the leading geologists of the day. I should parti- 
cularly mention the honor conferred upon Mr. Clarke in the year 
1876, by the Royal Society of England, in his election to a 
Fellowship—first, for valuable geological work in classifying the 
rocks of New South Wales; secondly, for services rendered in 
the discovery and development of gold-fields; thirdly, for his 
contributions to knowledge, amounting to upwards of fifty, 
published since 1826, in the Journals of the Geological and 
Meteorological Societies, and elsewhere ; and, fourthly, for the 
important part taken by him in the re-founding of the Royal 
Society of New South Wales, and in the promotion of scien- | 
tific knowledge in the Colony. Here we have an epitome of 
Mr. Clarke’s valuable labours in the cause of science, as set forth = 
in the “ Journal of the Royal Society of England,” which stamps 
him as a man of whom the Colony has reason to be proud. 
The spread of a taste for scientific inquiry is one of the leading 
_ objects of our Society. With this view the different Sections 
-hold their meetings, and with what degree of -success may be 
gathered from the records of their proceedings published in the 
Society’s Journal for the past year. Doubtless we are all of us, 
each in his own sphere, anxious to promote this object, and to 
direct our efforts to make the Institution the vehicle of practical 
rather than theoretical science. Those who can collect facts will 
- communicate them to the Society, so as to give value and interest — 
to its proceedings; and those who, like myself, have no special — 
en combine those general 
