116 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B. 



Batavia and the Cape. The substance which I have told you 

 before is called Margarine in England, is regularly quoted in the 

 market reports alongside with butter, and compares very 

 favourably with the latter article in the price it brings. Oleo, 

 that is the crude article, has been successfully and profitably 

 exported from Melbourne, bringing as much as £70 a ton, the 

 average home quotation being about £60 a ton. From this it 

 "would appear that the industry would be a benefit, as before the 

 raw material was worth from one penny to three halfpence a 

 pound, whereas now it is made into a readily marketable article 

 Avorth about ten pence a povmd. 



In Melbourne it is largely used by biscuit manufacturers, but 

 liere where Butterine is ten pence a pound, and butter (?) can be 

 obtained at five pence or six pence the demand is not so great. 



This stufi", so called buttei", which can be bought for five pence 

 or six pence should be examined by anyone who is curious as to 

 what is put into some of the cakes and biscuits manufactured 

 here. It is certainly butter but of a quality that not even the 

 poorest classes would care to consume. I have often heard it 

 said amongst such that the children do not care for fresh butter 

 as they like something they can taste, and the parents for the 

 sake of economy prefer the stronger Irish butters, of which the 

 children will not require so large a quantity. In conclusion I 

 think we may infer that Butterine, pi'ovided it is carefully 

 prepared, is adapted to supply the human frame with a suitable 

 heat-producing food at a minimum of cost, and that it is purely 

 a question for the palate and the pocket, whether it should 

 constitute a part of the daily dietary in the place of butter. 



[A discussion followed in which the Secretary, and Mr. J. A. 

 Pond of New Zealand took pai^t.J 



2. -ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TELLURIUM IN NEW 

 SOUTH WALES ORES. 



By John C. H. Mingaye, F.C.S., Analyst and Assayer to the 

 Department of Mines, Sydney. 



I HAVE much pleasure in bringing before your notice the 

 occurrence of Tellurium in combination with bismuth, being the 

 first discovery of that metal combined or otherwise, as far as I 

 am aware, in the colony. 



The material upon which I worked was obtained from Norongo, 

 near Captain's Flat, and submitted to me by the Department of 

 Mines for examination. 



