for the year 1878. xix 



but not as yet entered. The efforts of the director towards 

 perfectly displaying the collections which he has got together, 

 named, and classified, so as to show fairly the principles of 

 classification adopted, are seriously hampered by the non- 

 completion of the building. Parliament voted £4000 for 

 this purpose last year, but difficulties arose and the money 

 has lapsed. It is to be hoped that such a national work as 

 the completion of the museum may not be further retarded 

 from this cause. The collection continues in great beauty 

 and freshness of preservation, and the number of visitors is 

 constantly increasing, 102,572 being recorded for the year 

 ending on 30th June last. To the publication of six of the 

 decades of the Palaeontology of Victoria, which have been 

 very favourably received by the scientific press of Europe, 

 there has just been added the first decade of the Zoology of 

 Victoria, with beautiful illustrations in colours of the snakes, 

 fishes, insects, &c., of the colony, the originals, as in the 

 former work, being all in the national collection. The 

 other decades will quickly follow, and may be expected to 

 give an impetus to the study of the natural history of the 

 colony. 



The Public Library and Museums, with the thriving 

 Schools of Technological Science and Fine Arts, which have 

 grown up under its shelter, form an institution of which our 

 community may be most justly proud. Our members will be 

 pleased to hear that in the laboratories there are now 47 

 students at work. These are chiefly miners, metallurgists, 

 electro-platers, dyers, manufacturing chemists, soap and 

 candle makers, &c. ; their studies, of course, have a direct 

 utilitarian bearing, and it is gratifying to learn that several 

 have worked out new processes to apply to their trade. 

 A course of elementary lectures on chemistry has been 

 delivered by Mr. F. Dunn, to which the pupils of the higher 

 classes of the public schools were invited. They were weU 

 attended by an average of over 200 adults and scholars, and 



