xliii 

 JULY 8th, 1907. 



The monthly meeting ol' the Eoyal So- 

 ciety of Tiismaiiia nvi.s held i.ii the So- 

 ciety's rooms last evening. Hi-s Exeol- 

 lenc-y the (iovernor. Sir Gerald Strick- 

 land, who wiis accoiunanied by the Lady 

 E<leline, presided. Tnere was a fair at- 

 tendance of menibers. 



The acting secretary (Mrs. Morton) 

 stated that Professor Klaatch, who was 

 here in .Tanuary last, had forwarded casts 

 of two s-kulls— Neanderthal skull and 

 skull from Java, Pittecanthropns orectixs. 



Mr. A. J. Taylor made some i.nterest- 

 tng remarks upon the casts, and aaid 

 they formed tlie most interesting o^jjects 

 ever presented to the ethnological branch 

 of the Society. 



A Seismographic Observatory. 



A I'cttor wa.s received from the Pre- 

 mier (Hon. J. W. Evans, C.M.G.), invit 

 ing the opinion of the Society on a reso- 

 lution pa«ed by the Australasian Asso- 

 ciation of Sciciuce that a seismograph sta- 

 tion should be established at Hcbart. 



Mr. A. 0. Green pointed out the value 

 of seismograph ob.servations, and moved 

 a resohitioai in support of the opinion of 

 the Australasian Association ct Science 

 that a station should bs established in 

 Hobart. 



Dr. Noetling seconded the motion, and 

 gave the causes of earthquakes, and 

 pointed out the improbability of such oc- 

 curring in Tasmania. 



Mr. Piesse supported the motion, and 

 spoke of the scientific vahie of siich ob- 

 servations._ 



The motion was agreed to. 



Th€ Northern Territory. 

 Senator Do'bson, who recently contri- 

 buted a series of articles to "The Mer- 

 cury" on his visit to the Northern Ter- 

 ritory, next gave members some particu- 

 lars of Ills trip and observations. He re- 

 marked that the area of the ccamtry was 

 3:5,116,003 acres, which Mr. Deakin had 

 agreed to take over, subject to the ap- 

 proval of the South Austi'alian and Fed- 

 eral Parliaments. It was proposed that 

 they should take over its debt, amount- 

 ing to d£3,2ir.riO0, pxirchase the Port Au- 

 gusta railway at cost price, ,£2,318,242, 

 and which wa.s losing ^680,000 a.nnually. 

 The train ran once a fortnight. Pro- 

 ceeding to describe tlie country. Senator 

 Dobi^on said it seemed to be a desert. 

 Over tlie Avhole o.f the Northern Terri- 

 tory it was impossible to see tropical 

 vegetation. Tropical Australia seemed to 

 him _ to be unlike almo.st every other 

 tropical count', y, there being an "absence 

 of indigenous tropical vegetation, and 

 he was s>orry to sa.v no experiment had 

 been made by the South Australian Go- 

 vernment as to whether any cultivation 

 of tropical plants could be carried on 



with profit. He had seen a grove of co- 

 cna,nuts in the course of his travels, 

 which had been introiluced there, but al- 

 most every tree had been burrowed out 

 by white ants, and the trees were slowly 

 dying Orange and lemon trees sufiFeroa 

 the same way. He believed, from the in- 

 formation he gathered, that cotton could 

 be gro^Ti there, as well as tobacco. The 

 cattle breeding industry had, he believed, 

 been a success, hut the country leased to 

 the breeders was something enormous, be- 

 cause it was nrce'sary that they should 

 have access to water in the event of 

 droughts. One man, he was told, bred 

 14,0OP calves the year before last. One 

 breeder had a lea-e of 9,000 square miles. 

 Hl was informed that horses could be 

 bred there, but the specimens which he 

 saw did not confirm that statement. 

 Speaking of hisi visit to the Adelaide 

 River, Senator Dob&cn said there were 60 

 miles of marsh land on either side, and 

 if properly treated and drained it might 

 grow rice or anything else that could be 

 grown in the tropics. Tropical agricul- 

 ture had not as yet had a commencement, 

 He proceeded to explain how difficult it 

 wO'uld be to carry this on, owing to the 

 labour qu&stion. Labour woaild have to 

 be irn ported from India to cultivate jute 

 for instance, and the industry would 

 have to bear the cost O'f the importation, 

 the repatriation at the end of a term, 

 and oC'inpete with the industry carried on 

 under natural conditio.ns in India. He 

 was told that in India two million acres 

 were kept in cultivation for the jute plant. 

 How could vre compete with them ? As 

 to the route the prc'poeed railway should 

 take. Senator Dobscn took exception to 

 being bound dovrn b.y the' agreement made 

 with South Australia as to any particu- 

 lar route being chosen. In connection 

 with this matter, the question of defence 

 would be found to be closely interwoven 

 with it, and he was not prepared to vote 

 for aur agreement that tied their hands 

 to any one direction. He looked to the 

 time when the mails from England would 

 come acros; the Ocntineait of Euix>pe 

 through Turkey and Persia, through 

 Northern India, down to the Malay Pe- 

 nisula by Singapore, when they vrould be 

 within four days' steam of Port Darwin. 

 Senator Dobson next had something to 

 say about Australian defence, and said 

 before they built any railway there ought 

 to be the strictest inquiry by naval and 

 military experts. The taking over of the 

 Northein Territory involved many diffi- 

 cult problems, and it would take months 

 of debate. 



A discussion ensued, and His Exoei- 

 le«ncy, after ctfering some remarks on the 

 discussion which had taken place, moved 

 a vota of thanks to Senator Dobson for 

 his address. 



