structure, ma}' be found to contain satisfactory evidence — such 

 as the intestinal canal — of its animal origin. The bulrush 

 caterpillar is to be found in New Zealand and Tasmania. Other 

 msects that suffer the same fate are known of; but none of 

 these afford a more interesting illustration of the process by 

 which Nature sometimes makes an apparently retrograde step 

 — by descending from a higher, or insect, form of life to that 

 of a lower or vegetable condition — than we find in the case 

 of the bulrush caterpillar. He referred to samples of the bul- 

 rush caterpillar in fruit and sections indicating the woody 

 structure of the insect after passing through the changes de- 

 scribed. 



The Chairman and Mr. Johnston corroborated the descrip- 

 tion of the development of this interesting parasitic fungus, the 

 former remarking that its modern generic name was Cordy- 

 ceps, and exhibiting a very perfect specimen of C. Gunnii, 

 found at Franklin Village, near Launceston. 



Dr. Noetlmsf exhibited two minerals found by him at Gad's 

 Hill and at Barn Bluff — viz., analcime and actinolite — the for- 

 mer being a species of zeolite heretofore found only near Port 

 Cygnet. 



JUNE i6, 1908. 



The Monthly General Meeting of the Society was held at 

 the Museum on Tuesday evening, June 16, 1908. 



Sir John Dodds, K.C.M.G., Lieutenant-Governor, in tlie 

 chair. 



Messrs. L. F. S. Hore, B.A., Leonard Seal, and Joseph 

 Love, M.B., were elected Fellows of the Society. 



THE FOLLOWING PAPER WAS READ :— 



On State Borrowing and Sinking Funds for the Redemption 

 of State Debts regarded from an Economical Point of View. 

 By R. M. Johnston, LS.O., F.L.S. 



In the first part of his paper, relating to state borrowing, 

 the author points out — (i) the unprecedented progress of all 

 civilised countries, especially within the last forty years; (2) 

 that this progress entirely altered the methods and instruments 

 formerly employed in the industrial world; (3) that the intro- 

 duction of tlie improved machinery and instruments of trans- 

 port and production involved immediate, enormous, and 

 original outlay of capital; (4) that the consequent reduction 

 m cost of production and transport, and of prices, so affected 

 all parts of the world that new and old countries alike were, 

 perforce, obliged to largely invest fresh capital for such pur- 

 poses; (5) that great undertakings (such as the building of the 

 great Canadian and Pacific Railway system), oould not, practi- 

 cally, be consliucted in a piecemeal fashion, over a period of 

 from forty to sixty years, to accommodate the burden of the 



