RECOMMENDATIONS.

SECTION A.

1. That the Seismological Committee be re-appointed as previously constituted, with Mr. Hogben and Mr. Baracchi as Joint Secretaries, with renewal of the unexpended balance of £10.

2. That the General Committee of the Association be asked to approach the Governments of South Australia and Tasmania with a view of securing the early installation and maintenance of Milne horizontal pendulums.

3. That a Committee, consisting of Mr. H. C. Russell, Mr. Baracchi, Mr. C. C. Farr, Mr. Hogg, and Mr. Love, be appointed to consider and report upon the progress of investigations in Terrestrial Magnetism in Australasia, with Mr. Baracchi as Secretary.

SECTION B.

That the name of Section B be changed to “Chemistry, Metallurgy, and Mineralogy."

SECTION C.

The following are recommended as members of the Glacial Committee - Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., E. G. Hogg, A. Gibb Maitland, W. H. Rands, R. M. Johnston, G. Sweet, W. H. Twelvetrees, W. Howchin, and Professor T. W. E. David, F.R.S. (Secretary).

Committee for recording structural features, such as important folds and faults in Australia, with a view to studying the evolution of the Australasian land surface :-Professor J. W. Gregory, W. H. Twelvetrees, G. A. Waller, T. S. Hall, M.A., Hy. L. Brown, A.R.S.M., Walter Howchín, A. Gibb Maitland, E. F. Pittman, A.R.S.M., W. H. Rands, W. J. Clunes Ross, B.Sc., and Professor David, F.R.S. (Secretary).

A committee to recommend a uniform system for the nomen-" clature of the igneous rocks of Australasia :-W. H. Twelvetrees, Professor Gregory, Professor David, W. G. Woollnough, B.Sc., A. Gibb Maitland, G. A. Waller, E. G. Hogg, M.A., W. F. Petterd, Captain Hutton, H. J. Jenkins, A.R.S.M., A. W. Howitt, W. H. Rands, W. A. MacLeod, B.Sc., A. J. Dunstan, and G. W. Card (Secretary).

SECTION D.

(1.) "Recommend that the General Council of this Association be asked to communicate with the Government of New Zealand, and to urge respectfully that the construction of the proposed Biological Station, near Dunedin, be proceeded with as a matter of colonial importance." (2.) "That a committee, consisting of Messrs. A. Morton, W. L. May, C. J. Atkins, R. M. Johnston, and Colonel W. V. Legge, be appointed to carry on Marine Biological research in the neighbourhood of Hobart; that Mr.

Morton be Secretary and Convener; and that a grant of £50 be placed at their disposal."

(3.) This Committee recommends the General Council that the Committee on the Catalogue of the Marine Mollusca of Australia be discharged."

(4.) "That, in the opinion of this Association, the results of past experience demonstrate the urgent necessity for the observance throughout Australasia of certain principles for the effective conservation of forests.

(a) That all forests be vested in permanent Boards and rendered inalienable unless under exceptional conditions, and that no selections whatever be permitted within their area.

(b) That other land, wholly or in part denuded of timber, be also vested in such Boards for forest cultivation natural regeneration, such lands being the natural habitat of the species of trees, other than exotics, proposed to be grown.

or

(c) That the boundaries should as far as possible be natural boundaries.

(d) That the economic aspect of the question requires that such lands reserved for forest cultivation or natural regeneration be selected with due regard to their accessibility from towns or districts requiring the timber, or from ports of shipment.

(e) That large areas on the sources of rivers and streams, even though not containing good timber, be reserved, as the only means of securing a clean watershed and a pure supply of water for cities and towns now existing or hereafter to be built.

And, further, the observance of these principles is the only effective means of checking the enormous waste of timber that is now going on, the systematic prevention of which would render the forestry departments immediately self-supporting, and in the near future the source of large revenues.'

The Recommendation Committee cannot recommend the above in its present form.

SECTION E.

Spelling of native names of places.

Committee to collect lists of names and recommendations as to spelling-For Victoria: Dr. Fison and Professor B. Spencer. New South Wales: Dr. Brown and Rev. J. J. Prescott. South Australia: Mr. Maurice and Mr. Gillen. Tasmania: Mr. Alex. Morton and Mr. R. M. Johnston. Queensland: Dr. Roth and Mr. J. F. Bailey. New Zealand: Captain Hutton, Mr. Percy Smith, Mr. E. Tregear, and Mr. A. Hamilton. West Australia: Mr. Alex. Morton and Mr. Prinseps, with power to add to their number.

SECTION G.

That the proposed formation of a separate Philological Section for the present does not meet with the approval of this meeting."

"That the subject of Philology remain attached to Section G (Ethnology and Anthropology)."

SECTION H.

"That the sanitary legislation of every State should contain provisions for the notification of phthisis as an infectious disease, and for the prevention of its spread by the taking of proper precautions against its dissemination, and especially through the sputum of consumptives.'

"That there should be provided in every State at least one sanatorium where tuberculosis patients could be treated on terms within the means of all."

SECTION I.

"That a new Section of Philology be formed, or that, in the alternative, Philology be added to Section I., and to request that the matter be laid before the Council of the Association."

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

BY

CAPTAIN F. W. HUTTON, F.R.S.,

PRESIDENT,

HOBART, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1902.

EVOLUTION AND ITS TEACHING.

I WISH, very sincerely, to thank the Members of the Council of the Association for choosing me to preside over this meeting. The position of your President, elected by his brother workers, is the greatest honour to which a scientific man in Australasia can aspire, and the offer of it to me gave me very great pleasure. The feeling of responsibility for having undertaken to prepare an address to be read before such a distinguished and learned audience came later. It is a task from which the boldest might well

shrink.

OBITUARY NOTICE OF PROFESSOR TATE.

But before commencing my address, I regret to say that I have to record the death of a former President-Professor

Ralph Tate. Born at Alnwick, in Northumberland, in 1840, he early showed a strong taste for natural science, and in 1858 won an exhibition at the School of Mines in London. Subsequently, he became a teacher of science, and in 1864 was appointed Library and Museum Assistant to the Geological Society.

In 1867 he went to Nicaragua, and afterwards to Venezuela, to examine some mining properties in those countries, and on his return to England he was, in 1871, engaged to organise mining schools in Durham and North Yorkshire. In 1875 he was appointed Professor of Natural Science in the Adelaide University, which appointment he held until his death, last September.