RETIRING PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



The two years in which I have had the honour of being 

 its President have not been specially memorable in the 

 history of this Society. Such exhaustive work had already 

 been accomplished in most of those branches of science to 

 which members have given their attention, that little more could 

 be expected, and our greatest hope for the welfare and pros- 

 perity of the Society was, and must be, the opening up of new 

 subjects of interest, or treating those already almost exhausted 

 in some novel manner. With this latter idea, a series of 

 lessons on scientific subjects, Botany, Geology and Entomology 

 was inaugurated in 1897, but unfortunately they proved 

 more difficult to sustain than had been anticipated, and were 

 not continued after the summer recess. Personally, I much 

 regret this failure, for such lessons would be of great interest 

 and advantage to those already possessing some knowledge 

 of these subjects, and they might have been the means of 

 recruiting fresh, youthful, and energetic workers in these 

 fields ; and though to us these subjects may appear exhausted, 

 these fresh recruits would attack them with all the zest 

 inspired by the prospect of making new acquisitions. 



It is all very well for us, when a specimen is brought 

 under our notice, to say : " We have found this before ; have 

 exhibited it at meetings of the Society ; have already recorded 

 it in our Proceedings," and so on ; but we ought to encourage 

 others to make a beginning and to go through all the processes 

 of the study. We could by such lessons as were started 

 give them that assistance which might induce them to 

 persevere in their labour, and thus enlist the services of 

 young workers, whose non-appearance we so frequently 

 deprecate. We should thus, too, be following out the wishes 

 of the founders of the noble institution within whose walls 

 our meetings are held, for they state their hope that : " This 

 institution shall specially keep in view the elevation and 



