641 



"there should be in South Australia no institution rivalling 

 the Museum under my care, as this would not tend to further 

 the scientific and educational interests of the colony. In Ade- 

 laide we enjoy the existence of a Botanic Garden, with a 

 Museum of Economic Botany, and of a University with a 

 museum for lecture purposes; a Zoological Garden is now to 

 be established, and we shall have a Technological Museum in 

 course of time. There are also small museums connected with 

 some of the country institutes, and the Royal Society is 

 endeavouring to promote the intellectual and scientific 

 advancement of the colony. In the interest, not only of the 

 Museum, but of all the above institutions, I respectfully beg 

 you to take the following suggestions in the spirit in which 

 they are made. 



''I think it would be wise to exclude any technological 

 and botanical collections from the present Museum, where, 

 however, all objects of zoology, ethnology, mineralogy, and 

 geology should be gathered, as long as it is not thought advis- 

 able to have special museums for each of these branches of 

 science. 



''In the Zoological Gardens to be established, only living 

 animals should be kept, and the museum in connection with 

 the University should only contain such collections as will 

 be useful in lectures. Again, the country museums should be 

 satisfied in having only good educational collections, while 

 all objects of scientific value should go to the central institu- 

 tion, which, in connection with the Botanic Gardens, the 

 University, and the Royal Society, ought to represent science 

 in South Australia. '' 



He then proceeds to outline the manner in which, in his 

 opinion, the collection should be displayed. 



I think there are very few of these suggestions which 

 would fail to meet with approval to-day. 



Two years elapsed before the collection was considered 

 to be sufficiently advanced for public exhibition. A portion 

 of it was then displayed in the northern half of the present 

 Library, which remained its home for ten or eleven years. 



In 1894, that portion of the building occupied by the 

 Museum was urgently required for Library purposes, and 

 the collection was once more removed, this time to the present 

 brick building which connects the two wings of the institution. 



It is within the recollection of most of you, that at quite 

 a recent date further room for expansion was urgently needed, 

 and most of the eastern wing was appropriated for that pur- 

 pose. Then only were the early dreams of the Philosophical 

 Society almost realized, by the existence in this city of a 

 Museum containing an excellent and representative collection 



