68 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUJI. 



Fconi tlie next quotation to be made one is led <o believe 

 tliat Mr. Baxter's " laudable scheme " mi;st liave been under 

 official consideration some time l)efore. In the Mitchell 

 Library is a document: — 



" Schedule of Fixed Contingent Charges payable from the Colonial 

 Be venue of New South Wales to be substituted for the 

 Schedule of the said Charges of the 1st April, 1827." 



This document formed portion of: — 



" Despatch No. 89, dated at Government House, Sydney, 10th 

 September, 1832," 



from Govei'iior Sir Richard Bourke (wlio in the meantime had 

 succeeded Governor Darlinff), to the Right Honorable Lord 

 Viscount Godericli. Under CoJoultd Museum, in this Schedule 

 appears the following: — 



" Specimens of Birds and other Subjects of Natural History, origin- 

 ally granted ;^Oth March, 1827." 



A Museum, therefore, was evidentlv resolved on as earlv as 

 1827, the dates speak for themselves, and fui-thermore, it was 

 refei-red to as the " Colon itil Museum." 



In the ".Australian Qtiartei'ly .lournal of Theolog\', Literature 

 and Science," No. 1, for January, 1828, edited by tlie Rev. C. 

 P. N. Wilton,-' appeared a very flowery woi-ded article : — 



" Suggestions for the Esta>)lislnnent of an Australian Museum " 



(p. 58.) 



These "suggestions" it will be noted antidate Mr. Baxter's 

 " lauda.ble scheme " by nearly six months. In the course of 

 the jirticle the autboi- wrote as follows : — 



" The foundation of a Museum for the reception and public exhibi- 

 tion of the natural productions and curiosities of Australia, 

 could not but raise her in the estimation of the world at large 



3 Wilton, Charles Pleydell Neal, M. A. of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 Member of the Ashmolean Society- of Oxford, Chaplain of Newcastle, 

 1831-;};^ — Was not unknown to science. His principal contributions 

 were:^"An Account of the Burning Mountain in Australasia, called 

 Mount Wingen,'' etc. ; "■ (Jeology of the Goulburn and the Hunter " ; 

 " Sketch of tlie Geology of six miles of the South-East Line of the Coast 

 of Newcastle," etc ; "New Species of Eucrinite," found by him on the 

 coast. Doubt exists as to what his " Encrinite " really was. Notwith- 

 standing the adverse views of hig'h authority 1 cannot divest my mind 

 of the opinion that this object was a Comatulid. If so, Wilton has the 

 honour of first noticing the occurrence of this group on the coast of New 

 South Wales, or jjossibly that of Aixstralia. 



