xx President's Address 



there is not sufficient room for the proper display of our fine 

 collection, and the time has obviously arrived when the 

 building should be completed, and the director enabled to 

 give the colony the benefit of the complete classification 

 which he desires to exhibit, and which will include classifica- 

 tion according to geographical distribution. The freshness 

 and good state of preservation exhibited by the specimens is 

 remarkable compared with many collections I have seen in 

 large cities, and I have no doubt this fact may be traced to 

 the absence at the University site of those corrosive pro- 

 ducts of combustion which prevail in the more densely 

 populated parts of a city, and which are so destructive to 

 collections of this kind. In glancing over some statistics of 

 the Museum, we find that last year 98,000 people visited it, 

 and that it contains over 87,000 specimens. Professor 

 M'Coy, the director of the Museum, is proceeding with the 

 publication of the Decades of the Zoology and Palceon- 

 tology of Victoria, with figures and descriptions from speci- 

 mens in the Museum, The fourth decade of the palaeon- 

 tology has been issued during the year^ and the fifth is 

 nearly ready. Further decades may shortly be expected, 

 and numerous beautiful plates of the snakes, fishes, and 

 insects of the colony are already prepared for them. 



One of our most useful institutions, though perhaps not 

 the best known, is our Technological School and Museum, 

 and comparatively few people know how much good work 

 is being done, and what a wealth of knowledge in tech- 

 nology and the arts is being acquired there for the future 

 advancement of our community and colony. During the 

 last year the progress of the Industrial and Technological 

 Museum has been very satisfactory, both as regards the 

 number of persons availing themselves of the classes and 

 lectures on technical subjects, and the increase of the 

 various scientific and economic collections, their systematic 



