REPORT OF COUNCIL. 
367 
APPENDIX. 
SUMMARY OF THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
On a previous occasion .1 made a reference to the great neces- 
sity which ’exists for the construction in St. John of some suit- 
able building for the care and proper display of the various 
objects which are in the possession of this Society. We own a 
valuable museum, composed largely of specimens of the organic 
substances of our own Province; we have many articles of inter- 
est which have been gathered in foreign countries, gifts from 
thoughtful friends ; we have an excellent library of useful books, 
chiefly of a scientific bind; and this library, while it is constantly 
growing in size, is scarcely available to the scientific student 
because of the small space into which it is crowded, and the con- 
sequent difficulty of classifying, or, rather, arranging it for the 
student’s use. Although the ownership of all these is in the 
Natural History Society of New Brunswick, I may safely say 
that that Society has no narrow feeling of ownership. So far as 
it can, it opens its treasures to all who may desire to use them, 
in a truly scientific spirit, and it feels that it is merely a trustee 
for the public, managing property so that it may be conserved 
for the great purpose for which it was gathered, the diffusion of 
knowledge. We owe the city government acknowledgment of 
the fact that it gives us free of charge the premises which we 
occupy, but I am quite sure that it can be properly said we strive 
to make return by the use which is made of the property, by the 
broad spirit with which we open our doors to allow of the exam- 
ination of the objects which are in our possession, by the efforts 
which we make to spread the bounds of knowledge by our lec- 
tures, and particularly by the special efforts which are made by 
some of our members to teach the young and to unroll before 
them the pages of knowledge upon which are written great 
truths concerning the life of the world. We have now in St. 
