PROCEEDINGS 
AT THE 
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 
Held November 24 th, 1862. 
The annual public meeting of the Acclimatisation Society of Vic¬ 
toria, was held on Monday evening, at the Mechanics’ Institute. About 
one hundred and fifty ladies and gentlemen were present. On the plat¬ 
form were His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.B., who presided ; 
Major-General Sir T. S. Pratt, K.C.B., Professor M'Coy, Dr. Thomas 
Black, Mr. C. J. Griffith, and Mr. T. J. Sumner. A large extent of 
tabling and staging was occupied by zoological specimens illustrative 
of Acclimatisation from the National Museum. 
His Excellency having apologised for the absence, owing to 
another engagement, of the Bishop of Melbourne, addressed the 
meeting as follows : — Although, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot but 
feel that, in the abseuce from the colony of Mr. Edward Wilson, the 
founder of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, and the indefati¬ 
gable promoter of its interests, the most proper person to preside at 
this annual meeting would have been the almost equally indefatigable 
acting president, Dr. Thomas Black, I could not refuse to accept the 
invitation of the council to take the chair to-night, anticipating, how¬ 
ler, I must confess, that I should have little more to do than to sit 
m it while listening to the interesting proceedings which are set down 
m the programme, and perhaps to receive a very unmerited vote of 
thanks at the close of the meeting. But when I found myself put 
down in the programme, as it originally appeared, for an inaugural 
address, I confess I was a little taken aback, because, even if compe¬ 
tent without a great deal of previous cramming to deliver such an 
address, I could not but see that I should be placed as it were be¬ 
tween two fires on an occasion like this — that if I were to attempt 
to tou^ on the subject of acclimatisation generally, I should be 
trenching upon the province which will be so much more ably occu¬ 
pied to-njght by Professor M'Coy; while, on the other hand, if I 
were to confine my remarks to the progress actually made by the 
Society during the past year, I might merely be anticipating the con¬ 
tents of the report which is about to bo read to you. I think you 
will therefore agree with me, that I wisely came to the conclusion 
