Reports of Committees. xli 



exercise of your local influence (either by the formation of sub-committees, 

 or otherwise) in procuring subscriptions to an object which is national in 

 character, and must secure the approbation of every Australian who is 

 anxious to promote the material prosperity of his country, to enlarge the 

 boundaries of knowledge, to clear up the mystery which envelopes the fate 

 of poor Leichardt, and to facilitate oiu- intercourse with the other hemisphere. 

 The Government have promised to place a suni of money on the estimates for 

 the introduction of twenty or thirty camels, to be employed in traversing the 

 sandy deserts ascertained to exist in the interior, and the time appears to 

 have arrived when we may undertake the work of exjiloration under the 

 most favorable conditions of success, and may worthily emulate the laudable 

 example which has been set us by the adjoining colonies. 



' ' To open up a co mm unication with the northern shores of this continent, 

 is an enterprise which should engage the sympathies and command the sup- 

 port of the merchant, the squatter and the miner, no less than those of the 

 man of science; for such an enterprise promises to abridge the distance 

 which separates us from the old world ; to bring us, at an early date, in 

 telegraphic communication with India and Europe ; to open new avenues of 

 commerce ; to indicate how we may obtain access to vast areas of pastoral 

 land from which we are at present cut off, owing to our ignorance of the 

 intervening country ; and to solve a geographical problem, which is as im- 

 portant as it is interesting. 



' ' Under these circumstances the Committee confidently appeal to you for 

 assistance in the way of soliciting contributions hi the district in which you 

 reside, and would feel obliged by your remitting any sums you may receive 

 on this account to the Treasurer of the Exploration Fund — Dr. Wilkie, of 

 this city — or to the account of the Exploration Fund at the Bank of Vic- 

 toria, Melbourne. 



"I am, Sir, 



' ' Your obedient servant, 



"JOHN MACADAM, M.D., 



"Honorary Secretary." 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE PHILOSOPHI- 

 CAL INSTITUTE OF VICTORIA " ON THE FORMA- 

 TION OF SECTIONS." 



Read and received at the Ordinary Meeting of the Institute, held on 

 the 8th of November, 1 858, and adopted as a Series of Laws 

 [vide Laws LIX. — LXV] at the Annual General Meeting, 

 held on the 8th December, 1858. 



The Committee appointed at an ordinary meeting of the Philoso- 

 phical Institute of Victoria, held on the 28th July, 1858, and con- 

 sisting of the mover (Rev. J. I. Bleasdale) Professors Wilson, Hearn, 

 and Irving, the Hon. Captain Clarke, R.E., Drs. Eades and Mac- 

 adam, and Messrs. Rawlinson and Orlebar, having taken into consi- 



