360 RECORDS OP TUR AUSTRALIAN" MUSEUM. 



arrangements for the year 1847 were closed, I am now desired by His 

 Excellency to inform you that a vote of .£1,000 as a further sum "for the 

 ei-ection of the Public Museum at Sydney" was subsequently proposed 

 and agreed to by the Legislative Council. 



I have the honor to be. 

 Sir, 



your most obedient servant, 

 Robert Lynd, Esq., for the Colonial Secretary, 



Honorary Secretary W. Elyard, Junr. 



to the Committee of 



The Australian Museum. 



In October, 18-t7, Lient. R. Lynd found it necessaiy to resign the 

 Honorary Secretarj'-ship. His last attendance at a meeting was on 12th 

 October. He was succeeded by the Rev. George E. Turner, who became 

 a committeeman in 1845, and at once assumed the duties. 



It is always interesting to ascertain when customs or metliods of 

 procedure, still existing, tirst came into force. Thus, the first indication 

 of that most valuable adjunct to Museum display and scientific investiga- 

 tion, moulding and casting, otherwise replica work, appeared as early as 

 1848, when :— 



" The Committee ordered the sum of sixteen pounds to be paid to Mr. Circuit 

 for making several casts of the bones of a Diprotodon discovered and 

 brought to Sydney by Mr. Turner, of the Darling Downs'*'." 



The Presiding Officer at a now-a-day's Board is styled the Pi-esident. 

 This title appeared for the first time in Api-il, 1848, but not coupled witli 

 the name of any of those present at the meeting^"-. The matter was 

 evidently revived again in 1852, when Dr. George Witt moved that a 

 " President of this Committee " be appointed for the yeai- 1858*^-^ This, 

 however, does not appear to have been acted on, as the word "Chairman," 

 or "in the Chair" continued to be used as heretofore. 



For some years during the term of office of my pi'edecessor. Dr. E. 

 P. Ramsay, dredging in Port Jackson was tlie order of the day at least 

 once a week. This time honoured custom was tirst inaugurated during 

 Curator Wall's XMile, as it is recorded on the Minutes of 21st September, 

 1848, that :— 



" Mr. Wall was then authorised to purchase a dredging machine for the use of 

 the Museum, the expense not to exceed two pounds." 



**! Minutes, 26th February, 1848. The Diprotodon remains in question were 

 thus i-efcn-red to liy tlie Kev. W. B. Clarke: — " In the year 1847 Mr. Turner., a settler 

 on the Downs, brought to Sydney a large collection of bones dug up from the banks 

 of King's Creek, and together with Dr. Leichhardt and Mr. Wall, of the Australian 

 Museum, I assisted in putting together such as corresjjond. The result of our labour 

 was the construction of the head of a Diprotodon of such enormous propoi'tions. that 

 it measured foiu- feet in length from the frontal bones to the occiput " — New South 

 Wales Geological Surveys, Report No. x. {Vntes ntnl Piorei'iliiKjn, I8ii',]) p. 5. An 

 extended account was also given in tlie " AjipciKlix to Report No. x.." Nos. 1-5, 

 pp. 11-17. The original collection made V)y Mr. Turner was, Mr. Clarke said, "sold 

 1<) Mr. Boyd." Nt)W Sir Ricliard Owen records the sale in London " of a series of 

 Australian Fossils sent to Loudon from Sydney l>y a Mr. Boyd," and among these 

 was the head of a Diiirotoilmi (Phil. Trans., clx., 1870, p. 521). 



»2 Minutes, 22nd April, 1848. 



"3 Minutes, ^Oth October, 1852. 



