xl Reports of Committees. 



of .£1000 promised upon that condition, it is anxious to co-operate 

 with the Exploration Committee of the Philosophical Institute in 

 carrying out the objects which both Committees have at heart, and 

 desires to impress upon the Exploration Committee of the Philoso- 

 phical Institute the importance of urging upon the Government the 

 necessity of placing a sum of money on the Estimates in aid of the 

 Exploration of the Interior." 



Your Committee is of opinion that the time has now arrived 

 when an immediate application should be made to the Hon. the 

 Treasurer to place on the estimates for 1859 the sum of £5000, to 

 enable your Committee to co-operate with the Exploration Fund 

 Committee, according to the terms of its resolution, in adopting the 

 necessary steps to fit out, in Victoria, an expedition for the explora- 

 tion of the interior, at as early a period as practicable. 



Your Committee has every confidence that its application to 

 the Government, on behalf of the Institute, will receive a favourable 

 consideration. 



Your Committee has much pleasure in recommending to the 

 earnest attention of the members of the Institute the following cir- 

 cular which has been drawn up by the Exploration Fund Committee, 

 and which it is intended to circulate largely throughout the colony, 

 and ventures to irrge upon the members the great importance of 

 individually exerting themselves in promoting the objects which both 

 Committees have in view. 



DAVID E. WILKIE, M.D., 



Chairman, Exploration Committee. 



The following is the circular : — 



Melbourne, September 15, 1858. 

 ' ' Sir— At a public meeting held at the Mechanics' Institute, Melbourne, on 

 the 1st inst. , Sir "W. F. Stawell in the chair, the undermentioned gentlemen 

 were appointed a committee to take the necessary steps for raising £2,000 

 by public subscription, to be applied to the purpose of exploring the interior 

 of the Colony ; a donation of £1, 000 having been made for that object, coupled 

 with the proviso that double that sum should be subscribed by the public 

 within twelve months from the present date. The committee, consisting of 

 Sir W. F. Stawell, the Hon. J. Hodgson, M.L.C., Professor McCoy, Dr. 

 Mueller, and Mr. James Smith, to which Dr. Macadam has been appointed 

 Honoraiy Secretary, and Dr. Wilkie Treasurer, was limited hi number, for the 

 sake of securing a greater amount of individual responsibility as regards its 

 financial administration ; but as soon as it has discharged the first duty 

 delegated to it — that of collecting the sum specified above — it is pledged to 

 co-operate with the Exploration Committee of the Philosophical Institute, in 

 concerting measures for the prudent, economical and efficient expenditure of 

 the Exploration Fund. That Fund there is every reason to believe will be 

 aiigmented by a grant from Government ; and the aggregate amount, it is con- 

 fidently hoped, will suffice to prosecute the enterprise to a thoroughly successful 

 issue, In the mean time I have to solicit, on behalf of the Committee, the 



