xxxm. 



Dr. GtOsse said that this being the first occasion on which 

 he had been enabled to attend the meetings of the Society 

 since the delivery of the President's inaugural address in 

 October last, he wished to correct a few errors into which the 

 Professor had probably been inadvertently led, and which he 

 was sure the Professor would correct as soon as he was con- 

 vinced of his error. The first was with respect to the space 

 which would be available for Museum purposes in the proposed 

 new Institute building, which, instead of being inferior in 

 area to that at present possessed by the Museum, would be 

 greatly increased. The second point was with regard to the 

 management, which the Professor had found fault with, but he 

 directed attention to the annual reports, in which the require- 

 ments of the Museum had been urged without ceasing. 



Mr. H. Rees supported the remarks made by Dr. Gosse in a 

 lengthy speech, in which he mentioned that the space devoted 

 to the Museum in the new building would be 200 feet long by 

 55 feet wide and 44 feet high. 



Mr. C. Todd, C.M.G., supported, stating that with respect to 

 the purchase of specimens the Governors had never opposed 

 any purchases recommended by the Curator. He mentioned 

 the entomological collection made by the late Mr. Odewahn, of 

 Crawler, and stated that it was not purchased because it had 

 been reported upon by the Curator as not being of any great 

 value to the Museum. 



Professor Tate admitted that he might have been misled as 

 to the space available for the Museum, but asked if the whole 

 of the space mentioned by the previous speakers would be at 

 once placed at the disposal of the Curator, or whether it was 

 not the fact that a small portion only would be set apart, and 

 the remainder of the accommodation relegated to the distant 

 future, when the whole of the proposed building should be 

 completed ? He had made no attack upon the governing body 

 of the Institute, but only spoke in the interests of the Museum, 

 and really addressed his remarks to the Government and to the 

 public. He considered the specimens in the Museum were 

 badly displayed, and possessed no educational value ; but he 

 had not asserted that the Museum was badly managed. His 

 aim had been to show that there had not been such a display 

 of the specimens as might have been wished, even with the 

 space available. He denied that the public could derive in- 

 struction, and as a pi*ofessional Curator he stated that they 

 could be better arranged. He mentioned the fact that there 

 was no mineralogical collection available for transmission to 

 the Sydney Exhibition, and that collectors were now engaged 

 in the work of gathering specimens. 



Dr. Gosse said, with respect to a diamond mentioned by 

 3 



