6 Report of the 



results, which amply rewarded your committee for all 

 its labors and anxieties. Every post brought in 

 bundles of letters containing cheques, orders and cash, 

 and in not a few instances long letters of advice ; and 

 thus within the stipulated period the required sum of 

 .£2000 was raised by private subscription, and the muni- 

 ficent gift of the unknown donor claimed and secured through 

 the kind offices of his Honor the Chief Justice. The Ex- 

 ploration Committee of the Philosophical Institute having 

 brought up its report at a recent meeting of the Institute, 

 and that report having been adopted and printed in the 

 daily papers, your Committee think it unnecessary to go 

 over the same ground again on the present occasion. It 

 may, however, be satisfactory to some of the subscribers 

 now present to hear that document read, if they have not 

 already seen it. [Vide " Eeports of Committees," page lxv.] 



Your committee, on its own behalf, and in the name of ' 

 the whole body of subscribers to the Exploration Eund, 

 most cordially adds its tribute of admiration to the deep 

 feeling of respect and esteem which is universally entertained 

 and expressed for the noble-hearted and generous donor, who 

 has made so unexampled a sacrifice for his adopted country ; 

 and it deeply enhances our respect and esteem for the generous 

 donor to know that before the stipulated time had elapsed, 

 and before it could possibly be ascertained that there was any 

 possibility of the conditions of the offer being complied with, 

 he intimated through his Honor Sir William F. Stawell, that 

 he would extend the time for four months, or until the first 

 day of the present year, so as to give ample opportunity to 

 your committee to carry out all its arrangements, and 

 thus to secure with certainty the offered gift. 



Your committee cannot conclude this report without ex- 

 pressing its fervent hope that the name of the generous 

 donor may yet be given to the world, that it may incite the 

 ardor of our Australian youth in the cause of science and Aus- 

 tralian progress, that it may add to the lustre of Australian 

 patriotism and Australian enterprise, and that it may grace 

 an honored page in Australian history. 



Your committee has one more pleasing duty to perform, 

 which is to congratulate the subscribers, and all other friends 

 of exploration upon the noble liberality which has been 

 shown by the Victorian Parliament in voting the sum of 

 £6000 for Australian exploration. By this patriotic act our 

 reformed Parliament has done honor to itself and the cause 



