Natural History in Colonisation. 141 
University will appear much more so, if you think of it as a 
massive pile, richly ornamented, its niches containing statues 
of the great and good, with endless lecture-rooms, a commodious 
library, and an imposing Senate Hall, two or three dozen learned 
Professors, and a venerable Principal. It is, however, far from 
necessary—it is not, perhaps, desirable—that you should at 
once establish a University complete in all its parts.* All 
I would recommend, so far as Natural History is concerned, 
is the appointment of two or three professors, who would be 
easily accommodated, and who might be most useful Government 
officers, independent altogether of their “chairs.” No separate 
buildings would be necessary at first. I would house the Pro- 
fessors in the Museum, though this would imply your making 
this building commodious. Your Provincial Geologist might be 
Professor of a certain section of the Natural Sciences, certainly of 
Geology and Mineralogy, with their economical applications. He 
might act as Government referee on all questions relating to 
mining and quarrying in their scientific aspects. The Director of 
your Botanic Garden might be your Professor of Botany, and per- 
haps also of Zoology, with their economical applications. He 
might also hold office as Conservator of Forests, or have a seat 
at a Board of Woods and Forests as professional referee, 
He would be a useful authority in all questions relating to the 
acclimatisation of plants or animals, agriculture and arboriculture, 
* Let me indicate the University of Sydney, less as a model for imitation, 
than as a beacon of warning against dangers liable to be incurred. I have 
visited and greatly admired it as a building. But I think it has aimed at too 
much in the form of building, which is both too extensive and expensive for 
the requirements of the age and of the colony. The consequence of this error 
is, ¢nter alia, that, contrasted with the size of the edifice, there is a miserable 
paucity of students; and throughout the colony there seems to exist a feeling 
of insecurity or want of confidence in the solidity or stability of this the Pro- 
vincial University of New South Wales. While the building is on too large 
and expensive a scale for present requirements, the Professorial staff seems 
inadequate,—especially in so far as the Natural Sciences can be thereby repre- 
sented. There is only one Professor of these sciences, the particular science 
taught being Chemistry. In a country which owes so much of its prosperity to 
its gold, its coal, its sandstone, there is no Professor of Geology or Mineralogy,— 
while New South Wales possesses at least one local Geologist eminently worthy 
of such a chair, the Rev. W. B. Clarke of Sydney, whose distinguished labours 
in connection with the discovery and development of the Australian gold- 
fields, | am happy to see, have recently been rewarded by a handsome Govern- 
ment grant or honorarium. Nor is there any Medical School in connection 
with the University, though there is a large general Hospital in Sydney, as 
well as large Lunatic Asylums at Tarban Creek and Parramatta in its vicinity. 
And yet all of these might exist at a moderate expense, and without a separate 
University building at all! It would have been desirable had the large expen- 
diture of the Sydney University taken first the direction of the essential con- 
stituents of an efficient Academe,—a staff of Teachers of celebrity : the walls or 
pad would gradually have followed as they were required and could be 
afforded, 
