10 F. B. GUTHHIE. 



In many of the earlier events of the Colony he was 

 associated with such well known men as W. Wentworth, 

 Richard Hill, W. B. Dalley, John Robertson, and Dr. George 

 Bennett, and was one of the founders of the first Volunteer 

 Force, serving himself with the Mounted Rifles and on the 

 Committee of Defence. 



Particulars of a number of sensational trials in New 

 South Wales and Queensland, in which the detection of 

 poison in human remains and blood stains and hair on 

 hatchets and knives led to the convictiou and execution of 

 murderers, together with many other interesting mementoes 

 of his official relation with the Government, and pertaining 

 to the early history of the Colony, have unfortunately 

 been destroyed by a fire that took place in his home. 



In 1871 Mr. Norrie was succeeded by Mr. Charles Watt, 

 who came out from England in 1851 to enter upon the 

 duties of chemist in the soap and candle industry, then 

 about to be established on the strength of the success of 

 the pastoral work of the early squatters, whereby an 

 abundance of raw material, such as tallow and other animal 

 products, could be obtained cheaply. With the development 

 of photography in the young country, came the demand for 

 both nitrate of silver and chloride of gold, which Mr. 

 Watt prepared and supplied to the photographers. Native 

 silver was then unknown, and the only available silver 

 was that to be obtained from the pawnbrokers' shops. It 

 is believed on the testimony of those who knew Mr. Watt 

 that many rare specimens of valuable wrought silver plate 

 were sacrificed to do duty in providing the silver salts used 

 in the wet-plate photography of those clays. Mr. Watt 

 was appointed Government Analyst in 1872 and was after- 

 wards made Examiner of Explosives and Inspector of 

 Kerosene. In the years that followed, the work increased 

 so rapidly, that some ten years later a special laboratory 



