Public Insti/ufions. 9 



Besides the University, there are in Sydney a considerable 

 number of very important educational establishments and 

 public schools. The most strenuous exertions are made to 

 keep the public schools in a high state of efficiency, and 

 there is scarcely a hamlet, where the rising generation may 

 not be instructed in reading, w^riting, arithmetic, grammar, 

 and geography.* 



An observatory is also in course of erection, but meteoro- 

 logical observations had long since been carried on in the 

 principal places of the colony, and from the favoui-able 

 natural conditions of the continent for conducting such 

 investigations, the results must greatly contribute to our 

 acquaintance with the laws regulating atmospherical phe- 

 nomena. 



One very deserving institution dedicated to the noble 

 object of awakening a sense of the beautiful, and further- 

 ing the interests of science, is the Australian Museum. All 

 that this glorious country presents of interesting and useful 

 in the three great divisions of nature is here being gradually 

 classified in scientific order, and displayed in elegant cases 

 in spacious handsome apartments, the whole thrown open to 

 the public for amusement and instruction, free of cost. Al- 

 ready an excellent start has been made with valuable col- 

 lections of conchylia and birds, as well as numerous ethno- 

 graphical specimens and fossil remains. The management 

 'of the Museum has been confided to the most distinguished 



* The fixed salary of the teacher varies fi-om £120 to £140 per annum. 



