THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 119 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.- 
Delivered August 7th, 1923. 
By D. W. GC. Sutrnss. 
I had intended: giving you a paper on the value of our 
local trees, shrubs, and flowering plants, frem both an economie, 
as well as an aesthetic standpoint, but that can be held over for 
some future date, and, although that might possibly be of more 
interest to some of you than what T purpose saying, still as 
your President I feel if my duty to speak of what is in my 
mind, and [ hope to be brief’ on the subject of my address “The 
Welfare of the Naturalists’ Society of New South Wales.” 
[ have always held the view that the President as the Chief 
Executive Officer of the Society, should place before the mem- 
bers a review of the year’s work. It is the right of members 
to know exactly how matters stand, and it is just as necessary 
for a Society such as this to. review its position as it is for a 
company of business men, in order that it may readjust itself 
where necessary. 
Financially our position is sound, put if you take the 
trouble to look backwards you will find that the Society has 
been marking time for quite a long period, but thanks to our 
worthy Hon. Treasurer, Mr. Finckh, and to Ins foresight and 
zeal, we can sleep in the assurance that our reserye fund is 
intact, but are we forever to mark time? - That is the question 
we have to face and decide to-night. 
Now before I go any further I am going to say that it ap- 
pears to me we are too much inclined to lean on the Council 
for everythine. That the fact the Society is considered an 
educational one is accepted too literally, and that if we are to 
continue the good work we must look things squarely in the 
face, and accept our responsibilities and take our share of the 
burden. No one in particular is to blame, the fault lies so: far 
as I can see in the fact that we have never had a concrete ob- 
ject in view, and in order to test this I am going to offer each 
and every one of you an opportunity for work and that work 
to fit in with his own particular hobby or line of thought. The 
fact that we annually enrol a lot of new members but fail to- 
hold them is proof that there is something’ lacking in our 
methods. I have gone carefully through the proceedings for the 
past twelve months, and find that we have had the usual series 
of lectures, one or two by student members, which were full of 
