PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 37 
opportunity of giving receipts for additional funds to the 
object. Mr. Maiden informs me that he is at work on 
a lantern-lecture and also on a popular life of Banks; so 
that Australians may be readily informed as to the 
principal occurrences in his useful life, particularly as 
regards this continent. 
Science and Education.—Sir William Huggins, president 
of the Royal Society of London, in his annual address 
before vacating the chair, dwelt upon the influence which 
discoveries of science have had upon the general life 
and thought of the world, especially during the last 50 
years, and the place science should take in general 
education and in the direction of bringing out and 
developing the powers and freedom of the individual, 
under the stimulation of great ideas. To become all that 
we can attain as individuals, is our most glorious birth- 
right, and only as we realise it, do we become at the 
same time of great importance to the community. From 
individual minds are born all great discoveries and 
revolutions of thought. New ideas may be in the air 
and more or less present in many minds, but it is always 
an individual who at last takes the creative step and 
enriches mankind with the living germ-thought of a new 
era of opinion. This opinion from a man of the standing 
of Sir William Huggins is one that ought to be borne in mind 
by all who can in anyway help in the march of scientific 
thought. Many will perhaps fail, but others may be the 
fortunate solvers of problems. We in Australia have had 
our successes in physical development, why not in other 
and more glorious investigations? Young men of the 
greatest ability are with us and take the premier positions 
in our Universities, and under the able tuition of our 
professors are exceptionally well favoured ; these success- 
ful students have the ball at their feet—let them do their 
