x Report of Committee on 



that the government should step forward and establish an institution 

 which, on the one hand, will render such important service to science, 

 while on the other, it will redound highly to the credit of the colony 

 both in Australia and in Europe. 



An observatory has already been established in Sydney, and a 

 gentleman charged with the task of its superintendence has arrived 

 from England. It is, we believe, also in contemplation to establish 

 an observatory in South Australia, and we trust that we shall not be 

 considered as suggesting an improper rivalry when we say that the 

 first of the Australian colonies in wealth and importance should not 

 be the most backward hi the promotion of science. 



The Chief Secretary received the Committee with great courtesy, 

 conversed freely on the subject, expressed himself as favourable to the 

 establishment of air Observatory on a proper footing, and stated that 

 he considered it had strong claims on the Government. That of 

 course he could give no positive assurance without consulting his 

 colleagues, and that it must depend on the manner in which the es- 

 timates for revenue and expenditure turned out, whether any sum 

 could be placed on the estimates for the year 1858. 



Report, drawn up by a Committee of the Council, on the subject of 

 Mr. A. K. Smith's Paper on Wood Pavement, received at the 

 Monthly General Meeting of the Institute, held on the 3rd of 

 June, 1857. 

 Gentlemen,, — Having been appointed by you, at your last meet- 

 ing on the 29th of April, a committee for the consideration of a 

 paper on Wood Pavement, read before the Institute on the 4th of 

 March last by Mr. A. K. Smith, in connection with which the 

 charge of plagiarism has been brought against him, we beg to submit 

 the following report : — 



The question resolves itself into two heads. 



1. Did Mr. Smith intend, in using Mr. Hope's paper, to claim as 

 his own any credit that might result from it 1 



2. If he had not any such intention, did he use the proper means 

 to indicate the extracts from Mr. Hope's paper as such ? 



With reference to the former of these two heads, we have received 

 the following evidence : — 



1. A letter from Mr. Donaldson, Colhngwood, clerk to Mr. A. K. 

 Smith at the time the paper was prepared, but who has since left his 

 employment, stating that he acted as Mr. Smith's amanuensis for 

 twelve months, during which time he copied from notes and wrote from 

 dictation some sixty different papers, official reports, &c, and amongst 



