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by his \vritiiij?s for the local press, was appointed entomologist and 

 patholof>i.st to the Council of Agriculture. Authority for the appoint- 

 ment was given in section 13, clause 1, of the Council of Agriculture act, 

 and reads as follows: 



3. To employ from time to time, with the approval of the governor in council, 

 persons competent to give instructions of a practical character in matters pertaining 

 to agricultural and horticultural science, and to arrange for occasional lectures on 

 subjects of interest to cultivators of the soil. 



Mr. Thompson's annual compensation was fixed at £300, which in 1894 

 was reduced to £270, in pursuance of a policy of general retrenchment. 

 The entomologist has charge of no funds for expenses, and up to the 

 present time has been allowed no assistants. Very considerable inter- 

 est has been aroused, however, in the subject of economic entomology. 

 Mr. Thompson has lectured upon insect pests throughout the colony, 

 and during 1893 received nearly 1,500 letters of inquiry. A little 

 volume of 100 pages, entitled Handbook to the Insect Pests of the 

 Farm and Orchard; Their Life- History and Methods of Prevention, 

 Part I, has been published, and will be followed by others in the same 

 line, provided the appropriations continue. 



New South Wales. — In New South Wales there was started in 

 18U0 an important publication under the Bureau of Mines and Agricul- 

 ture, entitled The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales. To this 

 periodical Mr. A. Sidney Olliff, entomologist to the Australian Museum 

 at Sydney, has contributed many important articles on entomological 

 subjects, which have resulted from his appointment to the charge of 

 the entomological branch of the Department of Klines and Agriculture. 

 Whether Mr. Ollifit' receives a separate compensation for his work in 

 this direction from the Department, aside from his salary as an ofiicer 

 of the Museum, I have been unable to learn. The prominence given to 

 entomological matters in the Gazette, however, is an indication of the 

 live interest taken in the subject. In a series of ''entomological bul- 

 letins," begun in 1892, Mr. Olliff's name appears on the title page as 

 "Government entomologist, New South Wales". Another able ento- 

 mologist is em])loyed in the Technological Museum at Sydney in the 

 person of Mr. W. W. Froggatt, who has, under the "Technical Educa- 

 tion Series" of leaflets, published at least one important paper bearing 

 upon economic entomology, which has reference to the damage done to 

 boots and shoes by AnoMum (Sitodrepa) paniceum. 



Queensland. — In Queensland there is at the present time no official 

 entomologist, although one of the best bits of printed matter relating 

 CO economic entomology which has been issued by any of the Austral- 

 ian colonies emanated from the Queensland Departm3nt of Agriculture. 

 In 1889 there was published a report on insects and fungus diseases 

 by Henry Tryon, who held, and probablj^ still holds, the position of 

 assistant curator of the Queensland Museum at Brisbane. This is a 

 thoroughly jjractical and very able report, covering some 250 pages, 



