ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



By Sir Alfred Roberts, President. 

 [Delivered to the Eoijal Society of N.S.W., Maij 1, 1889.2 



It would have been an infinite pleasure and pride to me, 

 if, upon this occasion I could have followed upon the footsteps of 

 my predecessors, and delivered a Presidential address to you, but 

 unfortunately a late serious illness has left me incapable of the 

 eftbrt, and I am compelled to satisfy myself with a few homely 

 ri.'niarks and a]i expression of my sense of tlie honour you have 

 done me, of the great kindness and forbearance T ha\e ever 



T (-.■iniiot, lio\v('\cr, allow tlii^ tlie Cinitennial year of the Coh:)ny 



bi'i>;v ill ISL'I, wh.Mi a S )ciety termed the Philosophical Society of 



Tlii.s apparently had a sliort life, as although souitj excellent ])apers 



An attempt at its resuscitation was probably made in the year 

 1 ^•"52 — although but little record is left concerning it. In 1850 a 

 more successful etlbrt was made to bring similar materials together 

 uiulcf the title of the Australian Philosophical Society; this 

 coiiiiiuwiced under more fa\ourablo auspices, but was soon strangled 

 by Llie Gold m,uii,i. In 1 8r>r) it made a fresh start under the 

 iMiiH! of tl.e PhiloM-.phiral Society of New South Wales, and it 

 w;is at this date that I became first associated with it. I recall 

 with pleasure these days, when during the Governorship of Sir 



