president's address. 545 



As regards the work done at the Museums during the last year 

 Mr. J. H. Maiden has kindly furnished me with the following 

 note relating to the Technological Museum : — 



''The Technological Museum, housed in temporary premises in 

 the Outer Domain since the destruction of its former collections 

 in 1882 in the Garden Palace fire, has during the year removed 

 into a spacious aud handsome building erected in Harris Street 

 at a cost of £20,000. The specimens, which number about 35,000, 

 are arranged on three main floors, which are divided transversely 

 by numerous brick partitions, thus enabling classification to be 

 readily carried out. Provision has been made in the building for 

 workshops, laboratories, and offices. The removal and rearrange- 

 ment of the specimens have left the Curator and his stafi" very 

 little time for original work during the year, but some contribu- 

 tions have nevertheless been made to the Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society by the Curator (Mr. J. H. Maiden), the Assistant 

 Curator (Mr. K. T. Baker), and Mr. W. W. Froggatt. Another 

 member of the staff (Mr. H. G. Smith) read a paper before the 

 Royal Society of N.S.W. on the 'Occurrence of Evansite in 

 Tasmania,' while Mr. Maiden read a paper, by invitation, before 

 the Sydney Architectural Association, on ' Ironbarks,' in which 

 he endeavoured to make clear the characteristics, the [)roperties, 

 and the geographical distribution of each of these interesting 

 species of Eucalyi:>tus^ which are usually difficult to discriminate." 



At the Australian Museum during the past year the work of 

 the Museum staff has been mainly connected with the care of the 

 Collections. Preparations are being made as opportunity offers 

 for the contemplated new work on the Snakes of Australia. Two 

 numbers of the "Records" have been issued (Vol. ii. Nos. 4 and 5). 

 Since the suspension of the " Records " some papers emanating 

 from the Museum have been contributed to the Linnean Society. 

 Other publications have been — Part 3 of the Catalogue of Marine 

 Shells of Australia and Tasmania : The MuricidcE, by J. Brazier ; 

 Part 4 of the continuation of Scott's Australian Lepidoptera, by 

 A. S. Olliff and Mrs. Ford ; and a Catalogue of the pamphlets in 

 the Museum Library. 



