REPORT OF SOCIETY’S MEETINGS. 379 
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magnificent advertisement for us; and no one who could watch the 
course of events here, could say anything else. I am extremely glad 
now, that, for the colony’s own sake, it has made a representation in 
the Exposition. The Chief of the Department of Agriculture, in which 
we are placed, is always telling me when we meet that he regrets we 
had not, in the first, asked for proper space, and that he was unable to 
give me what I wanted when I came up afterwards, 
As to the exaét position as regards money matters, I will notify to 
the Hon. Treasurer, when I send down accounts in a few days’ time to 
him. Touching money, | was horribly alarmed a little while ago by 
the suspension of one of the banks in Chicago to which I had trans- 
ferred $2,000 of our funds. In the Administration Building, in the Fair 
grounds, a branch of one of the large Chicago Banks was started in 
May, under a concession from the Fair authorities : and as it was an 
absolute convenience in every way, nearly all the smaller Commissioners 
transferred the whole or part of their funds to it. As it was under 
concession from the Fair authorities, it was practically guaranteed by 
them, and when the main bank in town suspended, the authorities, 
as in honour they were bound to do, took over the risks and paid up all 
deposits from foreign depositors, There was thus no loss whatever to 
any one, though at first there was a good deal of anxiety and delay. 
The amount, I transferred to the First National Bank of Chicago— 
which is the first National Bank inthe city. As an instance of the 
other worries that arise, I may tell you we are always having glass in 
the cases broken by people leaning on them in spite of labels that beg 
them not to do so; and worst of all, the other morning, the man in 
cleaning dust from a set of large bottles with starch and seeds, etc., that 
were wired together, pulled a lot of them down accidentally on the big 
glass case underneath. Luckily, unfortunate as it was, the damage was 
not very great, though it has led to new glass for the case, new bottles 
for the seeds, and caused the Court to be partially closed. It was a 
dreadful trial for my temper though, for that very afternoon, the late 
Governor of New South Wales, the Earl of Jersey, was coming to look 
us over. 
Just lately too, there has been a difficulty in the matter of awards. 
All the European countries, on account of the system that was being 
enforced by the Committee on awards, in spite of renewcd protests, 
declared all their exhibits out of competition ; and asa matter of prin- 
ciple, British Guiana was also so declared: with the idea of compelling 
