17 



for the necessary cost this much needed entrance 

 must remain in its present uniinished and discred- 

 itable condition. 



" The ordinary garden expenditure for the past 

 year has exceeded the receipts by upwards of £40. 

 Moreover, many pressing repairs for tools, imple- 

 ments, and buildings, which have involved in- 

 creased and necessary outlay have been postponed 

 for want of funds, and for the same reason a very 

 fair petition from tlie labourers for a slight increase 

 their pay (four shillings per diem) could not be 

 complied with. It is only by the most rigid econ- 

 omy, accomj^anied by considerable difficulty, that 

 the gardens have been kept in a fair state of order 

 for some years past. All such institutions are 

 necessaril}^ progressive, but unfortunately no pro- 

 vision for progress has been made in the present 

 case, for while as far back as 1843 the annual sum 

 of £400 was granted to the Society for the man- 

 agement of the gardens, no addition to this amount 

 is now allowed, although the area of cultivated 

 ground has been very largely increased, immense 

 additions have been made, and are still being 

 made to the collection of plants, and labour and 

 provisions are two-thirds higher in value. This 

 amount, although supplemented by the unskilled 

 labour of a small gang of prisoners, is totally in- 

 adequate to the present requirements of the place, 

 and ridiculously small in comparison with the sum 

 voted for Public Gardens in the neighbouring 

 colonies. For tlie year 1876-7 the sums voted in 

 Victoria were. Botanical Gardens, £7220; Domain 

 and Government House Grounds, £8550. New 

 South Wales, Botanical Gardens, £4469; Hyde Park 

 and Domain, £3513. South Australia, Botanical 

 Gardens, £6700. Queensland Botanical Gardens, 

 £2485. Under such adverse circumstances it must 

 be painfully evident that it is no longer possible, 



