148 FOUNDATION AND EARLY AVOIIK 



R.3. TA<J. 



1849 : "I have set on foot a scientific society ; that is, 1 

 "have succeeded in making a society, which had been nomi- 

 "nally established several years, perform some work, and 

 "I hope to be able to forward liome a specimen of its 

 "labours shortly." (57) 



Sir William Denison resumed Mr. Latrobe"s efforts to 

 unite the Koyal Society and the Tasmanian Society, as 

 appears from a reference to "negotiations with the local 

 "Government'' in the minutes of a meeting of the Council 

 on 7th June, 1847. 



In his finance minute for 1848, read to the Legislative 

 Council on 17th March, Sir William Denison said: "I 

 "have retained the amount of £400 allowed to the Van 

 "Diemen's Land Society, and have ins^erted a sum of £100 

 "to be paid to a similar Society at Launceston. I have 

 'placed these sums, however, on the estimates in the hope 

 "that, by some mutual arrangement, or by a coalition 

 "between all the individuals or societies having at heart 

 "the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, a 

 "general Society might be formed, to whom the Govern- 

 *'ment might with justice be called upon to afford assist- 

 "ance to a greater amount than is now done to these 

 "detached societies, in consideration of the benefit likely 

 "to accrue to the country from its operations." 



In the report presented to the annual meeting held on 

 4th May, 1848, the Council, after referring to the desira- 

 bilitv of appointing a paid Secretary, say : 



"The Council recommended this step in their last An- 

 "nual Report to the Society ; but it was not acted upon, 

 "in consequence of a wish expressed on the part of His 

 "Excellency the President to reorganise the Society, and 

 "combine it with other societies, in order to promote, as 

 "His Excellency believed, its usefulness. ... It is 

 "understood that His Excellency now finds his plan of 

 "'amalgamation impracticable." 



In April, 1848. Mr. William Heiitv, the Spcretarv of the 

 Launceston Horticultural Society, proposed to Sir William 

 Denison that a " federal " society should be formed from 



(57) Varv'tie.'< of V Ic.p-Hi'fKd Life (London. 1870), 1.. 107. Sir William 

 Denison seems t.o havo vpndered a similar service to the Philosophical 

 Society of Ne^f South Wnles (see note 1). In a letter to Sir Koderick 

 Murcliison. 25th Jnno. 18:56 (ib.. i.. 354), Denison wrote: "I have got my 

 "Philosophical Society to work at luHt. ... I detenniiied I wonlil not l)e 

 "President of an efTeto body, so I called the members together, read 

 "a paper on railroads, got them to agree to meet regularly once a 

 "month for eight months in the year, and shall now. by the help of 

 "occasional papers from myself, and of suggestions to others, manage, 

 "T dare say. to gciierat<^ first, an appetite for writing, and then a. 

 "taste for oliservation, in order to have something to write about." 



