ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 1 I 



of the Society were tendered to the Government for the greafc 

 privilege it has hitherto enjoyed. 



We are glad, on this our first General Meeting since his return, 

 to welcome back Professor Liversidge in good health. We feel 

 sure, knowing his deep interest in the Society's welfare, that his 

 tour through Japan, America, England, and Europe, affording 

 opportunity for meeting his confreres in -Science, and visiting- 

 some of the principal Scientific Institutions in the old world, will 

 not only have been of interest to himself, but of advantage to 

 this Society. But for the unremitting attention and energy of 

 Mr. F. B. Kyngdon and Mr. S. H. Cox,— the other Hon. 

 Secretaries, to whom our thanks are specially due, — I fear that 

 in the Professor's long absenc3 we should have experienced 

 somewhat the position of a ship's crew without its captain. 



Another active Member of the Society, Mr. H. C. Russell, 

 Government Astronomer, also visited Europe during the year to 

 take part in the Congress of Astronomers lately held in Paris. 

 We may be congratulated on again having his valued counsel and 

 services as a Vice-President for the ensuing year. 



Professor Liversidge in his Presidential address drew particular 

 attention to the necessity for Scientific Education and to the 

 means afforded for such education in this colony, chiefly in the 

 Sydney University and in the Technical College. Many amongst 

 us will, I am sure, also endorse the Professor's remarks in regard 

 to the importance of introducing scientific teaching into our 

 Public Schools. No doubt many a boy with latent abilities for 

 science would rise to be a power for good to his country, were his 

 early educational environment such as to favour the development 

 of his faculties for scientific observation. We cannot deny that 

 in most children the faculty for investigating objects of nature is 

 very great ; and if this faculty were directed first upon simple lines, 

 what important avenues of usefulness might not its development 

 lead some individuals into ! Thus, to take one useful branch of 

 science, can the elementary knowledge of sanitary laws be too 

 early impressed upon all children whatever may be their future 



