50 The Journal of the Royal 
The President gave the following valedi£lory ad- 
dress: — 
He said they had been good enough to sit under his 
presidency during the year, and it had been a great 
pleasure to him to do the very little he could to further 
the interests of the Society. It was always his great 
ambition that the Society should take the lead in matters 
of agriculture and commerce conne6led with the colony, 
because the name of the Society showed the very obje6l 
of its institution, formation and existence. At times 
they could not help observing that the attendance at 
the monthly meetings had dwindled down. The majority 
of them were very busy men and very often found it 
difficult to attend the meetings. At the beginning of 
the year they started with a flourish of trumpets that 
they were going to give all kinds of le6lures, but, as 
usual, they all dwindled down. He was happy to see 
before the close of the year that one le6lure, which 
would be an interesting one, on the reign of Queen 
Victoria, would he delivered by the Rev. Mr. Ritchie, 
and he hoped there would be a large attendance. Al- 
though they had not had many of these le6lures, yet 
they were indebted a great deal to individual efforts to 
enhance and further the agricultural and commercial 
interests of the community. There was no doubt that 
the Society during the twelve months now ending--the 
last of the century — had in an indire6l way done a con- 
siderable amount of work. The Society was always 
reatly to receive all kinds of communications and ideas ; 
and the diredlors were ever ready to take the matters 
up and bring them forward at the proper time. More- 
over the work of the Society went on, if not very openly, 
