38 
The Chairman remarked that they were all aware of the 
difficulty of getting anyone to do the onerous duties of Hon. 
Treasurer. He suggested that they should ask Mr. William 
Macbean, who had experience in the duties of Hon. Treasurer, to 
take up the post. 
Mr. St. V. B. Down seconded, and it was carried. 
Continuing the Chairman said that no better man than 
Mr. Ridley could be found for the duties of General Secretary 
to the Show. 
Mr. Khory had great pleasure in seconding this proposal, 
and it was carried unanimously. 
The Chairman said Mr. Ridley had suggested that the last 
fortnight in August would be the most suitable for holding the 
Show. The fruit would be coming on satisfactorily then. Owing 
to the water front, the reclamation ground opposite Raffles 
School' would be the most appropriate, but if it was found to be 
not large enough, perhaps that part of the Show containing the 
horses and animals could be held on a separate piece of ground, 
probably on part of the racecourse. 
Continuing, he urged upon all present to do their best in 
raising subscriptions to enable the show to be a success and, at 
least, to equal the Penang one. 
PRICE OF TIMBER IN 1867. 
Mr. Hooper has lately sent me the original plan and 
estimate of the building of the Director’s House in the Botanic 
Gardens in 1867. The house was built for the Superintendent of 
the Agri- Horticultural Society, which eventually transferred its 
property to the Government and this was the origin of the Botanic 
Gardens. The whole building as it stands now cost no more than 
$2,400, while the cookhouse and stables together cost $250. The 
price of the timber quoted in the estimate is as follows : — 
Daru beams 22 feet long, 6 inches square, 90 cents each ; 
Tampenis beams 28 feet by 9 inches square, 7 dollars ; 22 feet 
by 9 inches square, 5 dollars ; 22 feet by 6 inches square, 2 
dollars 6 cents; Serayah timbers 16 feet long 3! inch wide less 
than 23 cents each. The labour for erecting the building was 
750 dollars, whitewashing and painting 20 dollars. 
The Tampenis beams are still as good as the day they were 
put up, and hardly any if any at all of the Daru timber has gone. 
Such Tampenis beams as those employed in building this house are 
not now procurable. It is many years now since I have seen a 
Tampenis tree big enough to give the smallest of these beams. The 
tree which must have been common at that time is now pretty 
nearly exterminated. The cost of repairs to the woodwork of this 
house during its thirty-nine years of existence has been very 
trivial, and when it is compared with that of later built buildings 
in Singapore, notably one large public building in which the 
