INAUGURAL ADDRBSS. 13 



The first mention I find of a Museum is in 1849, in which 

 year a grant of £100 was given by the Government towards 

 its support. From this small beginning a collection has 

 gradually been got together which, as I think you will agree 

 with me after you have inspected it, is a credit to Tasmania, 

 in so far as the illustration of the natural history and 

 mineralogy of the Colony is concerned. The Museum in its 

 early days owed much to the exertionsofDr, Joseph Milligan, 

 to whom I have already referred as the successor of Dr. 

 Lillie in the post of Secretary to tlie Royal Society, and to 

 whose geological work 1 shall make reference hereafter. 

 Dr. Milligan left the Colony in I860, but he always retained 

 an active interest in the Society ; and at his death, in 1884, 

 he bequeathed it a handsome legacy. No doubt all of you will 

 visit this Museum ; and I would direct your special attention 

 to the arrangement and classification of its specimens. It is 

 doubtless known to many of you that Professor Flower, 

 F.R.S., who was the President of the British Association 

 in 1888, devoted a large portion of his inaugural address to 

 describing the principles which should govern the classification 

 and description of specimens in Museums ; and it is no small 

 credit to Tasmania that, in this respect, she should have 

 been, long before the delivery of the learned Professor's 

 address, proceeding closely upon the lines laid down by him. 



I may here digress for one moment to say that, on 30th 

 April of last year, I had the privilege of opening a new 

 Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. It is, of course, 

 quite in its infancy yet ; but it is under the superintendence 

 of our Curator, Mr. Morton, and will be developed upon 

 precisely similar lines to those adopted here. 



The Museum and Botanical Gardens remained connected 

 with the Royal Society, and under their superintendence, till 

 the year 1885, when an Act of Parliament was passed, placing 

 them under a Board of Trustees. Most of the Members of 

 this Board, however, are Members of the Royal Society, and 

 perfect harmony exists between the two institutions. Owing 

 to want of space and want of funds, our Botanic Gardens 

 •have not been so useful in the past, from a scientific point of 

 view, as we hope they will be in the future. A good deal has 

 been done in the way of gathering together a number of 

 ornamental and useful plants, fruit-trees, (fee, with the view of 

 determining their suitability or otherwise for reproduction in 



