MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 95 



MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



LINNEAN SOCIETY OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Annual Meeting. 



Sydney, 28th January, 1891. — Dr. J. C. Cox, Vice-President, in 

 the chair. 



The Chairman delivered the Annual A_ddress, first alluding to 

 the exceptional and melancholy circumstances in which he was called 

 upon to preside, for which reason he should confine his remarks 

 almost entirely to the consideration of matters which directly or 

 indirectly concerned Science in this colony. He then proceeded to 

 review the affairs and progress of the Society during the past year, 

 referring at length to the loss sustained by it in the lamented death 

 of Professor Stephens. He then passed to the consideration of the 

 official recognition of the claims of Agriculture and Forestry to be dealt 

 with in accordance with the teachings of modern science, and of the 

 good, from an educational point of view, likely to accrue from the 

 establishment of country museums. Finally, after pointing out that 

 A ustralia offered an unrivalled opportunity of working up completely, 

 and under the most favourable circumstances, the flora and fauna, 

 specially interesting in itself, of one of the great tracts of the globe, he 

 proceeded to inquire how it was that with such a splendid harvest still 

 waiting to be gathered, in spite of all that has yet been accomplished, 

 the number of workers was relatively so few ; this question being too 

 complex for exhaustive treatment on that occasion, he offered some 

 remarks on a threefold aspect of it, attributing the slow increase in 

 the number of enthusiastic amateur naturalists partly to defective 

 educational methods which leave our children blind to the beauties 

 and attractions of Nature which surround them on every hand ; and 

 partly to the want of descriptive catalogues, and well-illustrated 

 handbooks written from the Australian standpoint; while the very 

 slender inducement to our young men to qualify themselves for the 

 serious pursuit of Science sufficiently accounted for the smallness of 

 the number who did so, the matter resolving itself into a question, as 

 Huxley puts it, "of living or starving." 



The Hon. Dr. Norton, Hon. Treasurer, laid before the Meeting 

 his financial statement, and concluded by saying " I have further to 

 report that by deed of 5th December, 1890, Sir William Macleay has 

 transferred to the Society the Linnean Hall, with the land on which 

 it stands having a frontage of 179 feet to Bay Street by a depth of 

 120 feet; and that by deed of the same date Sir William has 

 transferred to the Society by way of endowment a mortgage of 

 £14,000 bearing interest at the rate of £5 per cent, per annum. 

 The deeds by which these transfers have been effected are now in my 

 hands." 



On the motion of Mr. K. Etheridge it was unanimously and most 

 gratefully resolved that the heartiest vote of thanks possible be 

 accorded to Sir William Macleay in recognition of the latest of his 

 many munificent benefactions to the Society ; and that the Chairman 

 be requested to give effect to the resolution. 



