28 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



goldfiplfls, and reports embodying geological descriptions of 

 defined areas, were published, whilst illustrations of Palaeozoolog}', 

 by Professor McCoy, and of Palaeophytology, by Baron von Mueller, 

 were issued. In 1875 a " First Sketch of a Geological Map of 

 Australia," by R. Brough Smyth, was issued under departmental 

 authority. 



In the beginning of 1878 the Geological Sixrvey was again 

 discontinued, but was resumed later, Mr. Murray being alone 

 reinstated, and he still remains Government Geologist. After- 

 wards Mr. James Stirling was appointed on the permanent staff 

 in 1887, and other assistants are occasionally engaged. 



Since 1877 there has been a practical cessation of geological 

 surveying on an organised basis. Nevertheless, a valuable piece of 

 work during this period was the issue of a geological map of 

 Australia and Tasmania, executed by Mr. A. P^verett, chief 

 draughtsman of the Mining Department. 



The resignation of Mr. Langtree as Secretary for Mines in 1889 

 made room for the appointment of Mr. A. W. Howitt, so long 

 favorably known for his geological investigations of Gippsland and 

 for his anthropological memoirs. This transfer raised the hope 

 that some return to the higher functions of a geological survey 

 would be attempted. It has been realised in part, and the more 

 recent geological reports, such as those on the coal formations of 

 Gippsland, and on the glacial conglomerates of Heathcote, are 

 ■evidence of the possibility that the more purely scientific a>;pects 

 of geology can be carried on concurrently with its direct applica- 

 tion to industrial economics The severance of the two objects 

 would be a lasting disservice to the material advancement of 

 knowledge among the educated mining classes of the colony. The 

 support given by our provincial Governments to geological science 

 has for the most part been greatly disproportionate to its industrial 

 importance. It is much to be desired that the geological reports 

 of the Department of Mines should be rendered more accessible 

 to the scientific reader by their separate publication, instead of 

 being virtually lost amidst a mass of mining statistics of merely 

 epliemeral value. 



3. QUEENSLAND. 



As already indicated, the labors of Stutchbury, and Clarke, 

 •extended into what is now Queensland. On the disbandment of 

 the geological staff of the Victorian Survey in 1 868, we find in that 

 year Mr. C. D'Oyley Aplin appointed Geologist for the Southern 

 District of Queensland, and Mr. Richard Daintree for the 



