XXXIX. 
both Mr. A. Macleay and Mr. W. 8S. Macleay in turn took so much delight in adding ; 
after the death of the latter it was partially subdivided to meet the increasing demand 
of room for the expansion of a rapidly growing city and suburbs. 
The building, known as the Linnean Hall, erected by Sir William, is a substan- 
tially built commodious brick building of unpretentious appearance, 80 by 40 feet ; 
the rooms, lofty and well ventilated, comprise an office, storeroom, a meeting room 
and library, 40 by 40 feet, the ceiling and roof supported by six columns with 
enriched capitals, ample provision being made for bookshelves ; and a laboratory, 40 
by 20 feet, in which students desirous of carrying on investigations with the brary 
at hand or in proximity to the sea, can by arrangement be provided with work tables. 
On October 31st, 1885, the members of the Society were entertained by Sir 
William at luncheon in the new Hall, whereupon, after briefly sketching the circum- 
stances which had led up to the event of the day, without, however, any allusion to 
his own share in the expenditure of time, energy, or money in carrying out the past 
work of the Society, he in a few simple words dedicated the building to the service 
for which it was intended. As this was the only occasion on which Sir William ever 
publicly alluded to any of his benefactions to the Society we may give his own 
words :— 
‘The occasion which has brought us together will justify, I think, a few remarks from me on the past 
and present of this Society, and its prospects of future usefulness. The past may be briefly dealt with. 
The Society was first formed chiefly through the exertions of Captain Stackhouse, R.N., about the 
beginning of the year 1875, so that it has now been ten years in existence. . . . But during all this 
period in which we have been, it may be said, building up the scientific reputation of the Society, we have 
been labouring under serious difficulties of several kinds, but none so great as the want of suflicient space 
to meet our requirements. For the first year or so of the Society’s existence it occupied an upstairs room 
in Hunter Street, extremely inconvenient and difficult of access. It then, for about three years, held its 
meetings in a room in the Public Library, by the permission of the trustees of that institution. The next 
move was to very excellent and commodious apartments in the Garden Palace, which the Government of 
the day had most liberally placed at our disposal. Up till then we had had no room for books or anything 
else, and the scientific publications sent to us from foreign Societies were packed away in cases, and were 
literally inaccessible. But when we found ourselves in possession of the ample space allotted to us in the 
Garden Palace, we were at once enabled to enter upon the course of usefulness which was the original 
intention of the founders of the Society ; and we had collected a large and valuable library of works on 
scientific subjects and had completed the first series of lectures on natural history, open to the public, when 
the destruction by fire of the entire building rendered us once more homeless and destitute. . . . For 
some months after the fire we were again accommodated at the Public Library, and then for a few months 
we occupied a small room in Hunter Street, but in both these places the space at our disposal was so 
limited that we were precluded from making any attempt to again get together a collection of books. 
Subsequently we obtained possession of a convenient and central house in Phillip Street, in which the noise 
of the tram-cars was our only serious disadvantage, and since then, that is to say, during the last two years, 
we have, though not overburdened with space, been enabled to invite contributions to the library, and the 
result, I am glad to inform you, is that we have now a large and excellent reference library, comprising 
