APPENDIX 



A copy of the complete minutes of the Philosophical 

 Society of Australasia, 1821-22. 



27th June, 1821. 

 4th July, 1821. 

 At Mr. Field's, At Major Goulburn's, 



Present, Present, 



Mr. Bowman, Mr. Bowman, 



Dr. Douglass, Dr. Douglass, 



Mr. Field, Mr. Field, 



Major Goulburn, Major Goulburn, 



Capt. Irvine, Oapt. Irvine, 



Mr. Wollstonecraft. Mr. Oxley, 



Mr. Wollstonecraft. 



Upwards of thirty years have now elapsed, since the 

 colony of New South Wales was established in one of the 

 most interesting parts of the world, — interesting as well 

 from the novel and endless variety of its animal and vege- 

 table productions, as from the wide and extending range 

 for observation and experiment, which its soil and climate 

 offer to the agriculturist. Yet little has been done to 

 awaken a spirit of research or excite a thirst for inform- 

 ation amongst the Colonists. When we consider that we 

 are speaking in the nineteenth century, and reflect on the 

 progression of science for nearly three thousand years, the 

 rejection and adoption of various systems in every branch 

 of natural history, and the security which it was fancied 

 that scientific arrangement had at last attained, we are 

 almost inclined to believe that Nature has been leading us 

 through a mazy dance of intellectual speculation, only to 

 laugh at us at last in this fifth continent. Be that as it 

 may, however, this country affords an opportunity to an 

 enlightened people, of putting into practice, with all the 

 -advantages of salubrity of climate and fertility of soil, the 



