Iviii 



ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS, SEPTEMBER, 1905. 



The monthly meeting of the Royal So- 

 ciety of Tasmania was held at tho Tas- 

 manian Museum on Tuesday evening, 

 12th inst. His Excellency Sir Gerald 

 Strickland, who was accompanied by 

 Lady Edeline Strickland, and attended 

 by Captain Maclean Grilhn, A.D.C., pre- 

 sided. 



The Housing Problem. 



His Excellency introduced the discus- 

 sion on a paper read by the bishop of 

 Tasmania at the previous meeting on 

 the housing problem, and referred to the 

 exhibition of model cottages for work- 

 ing men recently held in London. The 

 cottages contained four or five rooms, and 

 were erected at a cost of about J£150. 



Mr. R. M. Johnston said that the 

 question was one of great importance, 

 and it remained now to do something in. 

 a practical way to beneht workmen in 

 the city who received a comparatively 

 small wage, H© had consulced some 

 friends on the matter of arriving at 

 some method of attempting an experi- 

 ment of the nature indicated in this 

 city. At the same time, he did not see 

 how anything could be clone for the im- 

 provident poor. He thought that much 

 might be achieved if a spot in proximity 

 to Hobart could be found on which to 

 erect experimental dwellings. Perhaps 

 the municipality, with the authorisation 

 of the ratepayers, might be able to uti- 

 lise the slaughter-house site for that 

 purpose. The matter was, of course, one 

 for a corporative body, and not for divi- 

 ded individual effort. i or i:5,0UO two 

 rows of ten cottages might be erected, 

 and if the money were raised on favour- 

 able terms the experiment should prove 

 STiccessful, and the cottages migiit be let 

 for 4s. a v.eek. That could all be done 

 without exposing the city to any appre- 

 ciable risk; certainly not more than ^d. 

 on every ^15 of annua; value of city pro- 

 perty. The scheme should be taken up 

 in a whole-hearted manner, and every- 

 tliing was to be gained by inducing all 

 the citizens to interest themselves in the 

 project. There were evidences that the 

 standard of comfort enjoved by the ma- 

 jority of working men in Hobart was 

 above that enjoyed by similar classes in 

 almost all cities of the world. Not above 

 5 per cent, of the ptopie in Hobart occu- 

 pied houses of less tnan three rooms. If 

 the cost of the scheme he had projected 

 were spread over all tne citizens, they 

 would, individually, have little to bear, 

 especially as the rent would be almost 

 suificient to defray tne interest on the 

 capital reciuired. 



T)r, Gerard Smith thought that the 

 City Council per se was not the body 

 to whicn they shotild Jook to initiate 



such an enterprise. He thought that the 

 duties of the Corporation in these mat- 

 ters should be of a S'Upervisory character^ 

 Again, the municinaiity should only 

 build for the purpose of getting rid of 

 insanitary areas. Dv. Gerard Smith, 

 also thought that something should b& 

 done for the drunken and improvident; 

 but in this instance, too, the work could 

 be well entrusted to private enterprise. 

 The same was true of the scheme suggest- 

 ed by Mr. Johnston. 



The Bishop of Tasmania referred to 

 the point raised by Dr. Gerard Smith as 

 to who should bear the responsibility of 

 providing housing for the working classes, 

 and went on to say that he thought the 

 duty rested with the whole community. 

 He also thought that if the community 

 was content to sit down and do nothing, 

 whilst the army of industrial workers 

 was paving a quarter of their weekly 

 wage in rent, it would be lacking in its 

 duty. The task should be undertaken in 

 the manner suggested by Mr. Johnston,, 

 for then every member of the community 

 would perform his part. The question 

 then arose, who should act for the com- 

 munity? He agreed with Mr. Johnston 

 that it would be the duty of the Corpo- 

 ration to undertake tne work; but, pro- 

 vided the community acted as a whole, 

 he was not particular what bodv was en- 

 trusted with the executive work in con- 

 nection with the scheme. 



Dundasite. 



The Secretary (Mr. Alex. Morton) read 

 a paper prepared by Mr. W. F. Petterd, 

 entitled, "A note on the occurrence in 

 AYales of the mineral dundasite which 

 was supposed heretofore to be peculiar 

 to Tasmania." 



In a catalogue of the minerals knoAvn 

 to occur in this island, which was oub- 

 lished in the proceedings of this so'-iety 

 for the year 189B, I brought under the 

 notice of mineralogists for the first ti^ne 

 the occurrence of a mineral of remarkable 

 chemical composition, to which was ap- 

 plied the specific term of dundasite, and 

 I have now the satisfaction of bringing 

 under notice the i-ecognition of the origi- 

 nal diagnosis by the announcement of tha 

 detection of this interesting substance at 

 the Welsh Foxdale mine, Trefrico, Car- 

 marthenshire, by Mr. H. F. Collins (the 

 author of "The Metallurgy of Lead and 

 Silver"), and on which discovery a paper 

 has been read before the Mineralogical 

 Society on March 15 by Mr. G. T. Prior 

 ("Nature," April 13, 1905). Dundasite is 

 a mineral substance of extremely unique 

 and peculiar composition, and up to the 

 time of its determination as occurring at 

 the silver-lead mines of Dundas, was pre- 

 viously unknown to mineralogical science^ 



