ANNIYEESAKY ADDEESS. 55 



be suicidal to do so. And it is in every way better that responsi- 

 bility to the public should be held by those who presume to direct 

 its judgment. This is not said invidiously, but in explanation of 

 the course I have seen fit to take for my own satisfaction. When 

 the Secretary of Mines applied to me by letter, I stated how I 

 was situated, and that he had wished for aid in his undoubtedly 

 well-intended good work, ivithout stating what aid lie required. 



All that New South "Wales is credited with is a " white sheet." 

 Yet I do not doubt that she has supplied in various ways, and by 

 various contrivances, by far the greater part of the materials 

 which are to be employed in her service or disservice ; and it is 

 more than possible that some portion of what I have myself 

 mapped down may have been carried over the border. Whether 

 the geological world at Home will consider such a plan sufficient 

 is not my business to inquire. 



Yet one may feel inclined to doubt whether any of the sur- 

 veys that are to be embodied in one grand piece of geological 

 patchwork are sufficiently perfect to allow them to be combined 

 at present with actual advantage to science, and by a compiler 

 who has not had the means of such supervision of them as would 

 be necessary if the comparison of such distant and separate 

 regions, with a view to definite boundaries and actual identity and 

 formations be the one sole object for publication of surveys and 

 other collected data. Over these, even in the absence of copyright, 

 no compiler can have a legitimate claim to exercise control or to 

 make alteration in them so as to suit a theory or a conjecture that 

 mast undoubtedly involve some contradictions which even the 

 audacity of genius cannot correct. 



Professor Jukes put forth the first sketch map of this kind 

 iu 1850, in his " Physical Structure of Australia," but not with- 

 out encountering some unpleasant criticism at his boldness. In 

 the new " Sketch of Maps" there will be the same danger of not 

 satisfying more than the curiosity of a portion of the public ; but 

 it would be to exhibit a want of loyalty not to wish for the com- 

 piler all the advantages to the Colonies at large which his various 

 contributions may unite in securing. 



