120 FOUNDATION AND EARLY WORK 



R.S. TAS. 



''excellent classification which learned men had adopted 

 "in the old world." 



In the evening the Society met again at the Macquarie 

 Hotel, to entertain the Lieutenant-Governor at dinner. 

 -"' Mr. Cox," reports the Courier, " had done his best to 

 "cover the table of our philosophers with the first speci- 

 "mens of our fish, flesh and fowl." The scientific occupa- 

 tions of the afternoon were laid aside, and a long toast-list 

 occupied the company until midnight. 



Thus successfully launched, the Society met monthly, 

 and was occupied with papers and discussions on many 

 subjects; and it established a museum. But a fuller ac- 

 count of its proceedings would keep us too long from our 

 subject, and must be deferred to another occasion. (5) 



The Colonial Gardens (1818). 



The land now occupied by the Botanical Gardens, with 

 other land at Pavilion Point, afterwards laid out as the 

 grounds of Government House, 50 acres in all, was "pre- 

 "sented" in 1806 or 1807 by Governor Collins to John 

 Hangan, after whom the locality was called Hangan's 

 Farm. The farm was purchased in 1813 by R. W. Loane, 

 who in 1818 was dispossessed by Governor Sorell as having 

 no title. Loane, writing in 1824 in support of an applica- 

 tion for compensation for this land, says : "It now forms 

 "part of the Government Garden" ; and in 1825 a report 

 was made to the Government that the 50 aeres included 

 "nearly the whole of the Government Garden," as well as 

 a valuable freestone quarry. (6) No definite reference of 

 an earlier date to the Gardens has been found; but in the 

 statement of salaries from 1st April to 30th June, 1818, in 

 the quarterly account of the Police Fund of Van Diemen's 

 Laud for the quarter endinof 30th September, 1818 (Hohart 

 Town Gazette a?id Southern Reporter, 9th January, 1819), 

 there is an item '^ J. Faber, Sai)erintendence of Government 

 "Garden and Grounds, <£5 ; " and the Launceston Examiner 

 of 22nd July, 1848, refers to the Gardens as havinor been in 

 cultivation for 30 years. It a})ppars tlien that a g^arden was 

 laid out at some time between 1817 and 1821, and jirobablj 

 in 1818. (7) 



<5) See West, History of Tasmania (Launceston, 1832). i., 127, Hender- 

 son. Observations on the Colonies of Neto South Wales and Van Diemen's Land 

 (Calcutta, 1832), pp. iv.-vii. 



(6) Chief Secretary's Office, 9,307 (Arthur). 



(7) No record has been found of the exact date. Governor SorelPs 

 letters and despatches, the most important records of the time, 

 have long been missing from the proper official custody. Prior to the 

 formation of this garden, there had been a garden belonging to the 



