THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM— EARLY HISTORY— ETHERIDGE. 69 



while it would excite her to further efforts to maiutain and 

 increase that good opinion and respect wliich such a measure 



would produce The materials for furnishing a 



Museum are so abundant, particularly in Natural History 

 that in much less time than would be necessary to erect a 

 building for their reception a collection c^add be made equal 

 in number and more interesting from novelty than anyone in 

 existence .- and that at a comparatively trifling expense . 



A building should be erected on a jilan, which would 

 admit of, and be adopted for future enlargements and addi- 

 tions, as the funds of the Museum would allow, composed of 

 a centre and wings. The centre should be of an elevation 

 that would form a complete edifice in itself, but be so con- 

 structed as to admit of wings being hereafter added, which 

 could be connected with the main building by a colonnade. 

 . Care should be taken to secure sufficient ground to 

 enable the future supporters of the Museum to increase it 

 from time to time, by forming three other sides of the square, 

 so that the whole when complete would form a regular quad- 

 rangular building presenting on every side a uniform eleva- 

 tion A portion of the building might, with very 



great propriety, be applied as a public Lecture-room, in which 

 Lectures on any subjects connected with science could be 

 delivei'ed. It would likewise contain room for a Public 

 Libi'ary — an institution at present much wanted, and which 

 will be still more so" (pp. 61-64). 



Who was the author of this article ? I regret to say I liave 

 been unable to ascertain and it is signed with the initial letter 

 " U " simply. Two points at once strike one in connection 

 with this ver3- remarkable article: — (1) the general scheme of 

 a quadrangular building was that ultimately adopted in the 

 erection of the Australian Museum ; (2) with the exception of 

 " Fixed Contingent Charges " of 1827, already mentioned, for 

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

 this article would appear to be the earliest public notice of a 

 project to establish a Museum, at any rate it is the earliest I 

 have been able to find. 



When the old documents and pa^iers in this Museum's 

 archives were examined and sorted a iew years ago, by good 

 luck was found a most valuable one, and of which the follow- 

 ing is a verbatim copy, with erasures and corrections as in 

 the original. Fi-om this paper, which carries us to 31st Dec, 

 1837, it is abundantl}' clear that a Museum of some kind was 

 established between the years 1827-9. 



