THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. I 
of Australia and Austral Polynesia. Many races seem doomed to 
extinction ; before it is too late let us preserve all we can that may 
tzach us and those who come after us what sort of men they were. 
The last born of our natural collections is the Economic Museum 
at the Exhibition Building. The danger of this new undertaking 
is that it should overlap on the one hand the Nationl, and, on the 
other, the Technological Museums. To a certain extent this has 
already been the case. Conchological and paleontological collections 
should certainly find no place there, that is if our museums are to 
be helps to study and not mere show places. To be valuable, 
collections should be complete. The authorities of our various 
institutions should work together in harmony and with common 
purpose. Public money should certainly not be spent in gathering 
a few specimens at the Exhibition Building of shells, or fossils, or 
the like, and even presentations of such should be handed in to the 
National Museum. <A student cannot afford time, if he needs to 
compare specimen with specimen, to run between the Exhibition 
and University Buildings. But an Economic Museum in itself is 
another and much needed help, not only to the scientist, but to those 
who are called the practical men of the community—manufac- 
turers, agriculturists, horticulturists, all need such an aid. 
Specimens of products, with their economic uses; complete sets 
of insects noxious to plants, such as have been prepared and 
placed there by our fellow-member, Mr. French; the admirable 
series of woods by Baron von Mueller; complete sets of fungi, 
classified as edible, harmless, poisonous; microscopic fungi 
hurtful to plants ; insectivorous birds, that all grain or fruit growers 
should cherish and protect ; sorts of grains or fruits suitable to the 
various soils of the colony, with specimens of such soils. These 
are but illustrations of what an Economical Museum should be; 
the only difficulty seems to be the drawing a line between the 
Technological and the Keononie Museums, and I think we ought 
to deprecate the establishment of mere rival collections. We 
have not scientists enough to spare men in different places to do the 
same work, and we have neither the wealth of money or time to 
spend in running from place to place in our pursuit of knowledge. 
To the botanist the Botanical Museum, under the care of the Baron 
yon Miller, offers all that he needs of the flora of Australia ; 
while our Botanical Garden is not only a thing of beauty, but a 
live book adorned with nature’s own most magnificent paintings, 
in which those who walk may read and learn. 
I have been led thus to take up my time—not intentionally at 
first—in speakiny of the helps we enjoy in this city for the 
domestication of science. Our one hundred and sixty members 
show that in this young land minds are not shut to the wonders 
that nature is ever ready to reveal to those who are willing to open 
