In 1882, nine years after Mr. Brown’s retirement, Mr. E. T. 
Hardman, of the Geological Survey of Ireland, was appointed 
to the post of Government Geologist. His labours were chiefly 
confined to the Kimberley District, upon which he issued two 
voluminous reports illustrated by a series of geological maps. 
Mr. Hardman was the pioneer geological observer in the far north 
-of Western Australia, and his field work carried out during the 
years 1882-84 laid the foundation of our knowledge of the geology 
of the Kimberley district, and played an important part in the 
, opening up of the State’s first declared goldfield. His two map 
and reports greatly stimulated prospecting as his predictions a 
to localities where gold would be found were afterwards justified 
Mr. Hardman on returning from the north examined the neigh- 
bourhood of Bunbury, Blackwood, etc., which ultimately resulted 
in the discovery of the Greenbushes tinfield. Later on he in- 
vestigated the geology of the metropolitan area with reference to 
the question of its water-supply from underground sources. On 
the. termination of Mr. Hardman’s engagement with the West 
ern Australian Government he returned to Ireland, and resumed 
his duties on the Geological Survey in 1885, bearing, I understand, 
the assurance that he would certainly be appointed if a permanent 
post of Government Geologist was created. 
Mr. Hardman, to whom Western Australian geologists owe 
a debt of gratitude which it is difficult to repay, died after a few 
days’ illness brought on by the inclemency of the weather and 
exposure to snow and rain, on the ^oth of April, 1887. 
"It is all the more sad to think that had he lived the long-desired post of 
-Government Geologist of Western Australia would have been ottered to 
"Mr Hardman, the financial difficulties in the way of his appointment 
" having been removed just before he died ’’ . 
Very shortly after Mr. Hardman’s term of service m Western 
Australia came to an end, a motion was brought forwaid in the 
Legislative Council in 1885, having for its object : — 
"the establishment of a permanent geological department tor the Colony 
•; t hc geologist in charge of such department to combine with the duties of 
" his primary office those of public analyst. , . 
The Hon. Member who moved the resolution stated that in 
*' he trusted and believed he was moving in a matter that would do much 
“ good to the Colony, and he had confidence it would do no harm ! . 
The same Hon. Member instanced the fact , 
-that the other Colonies had found that the value of the practical man 
“alone, without scientific knowledge to guide him, was not so great as the 
“ value of the practical man assisted by the man of science and these 
" Colonies were all forming geological departments the same as he proposed 
“ to have established here” . , ,, 
The debate which followed the introduction oi the motion is 
of considerable historical interest, as it indicates m a ceitain 
measure the status in which scientific men were held m the minds 
of some of the legislators in the colony at that time, though I 
cannot but suspect that it in some measuie arose fiom a mis- 
