226 
MAGAZINE OE SCIENCE AND ART. 
COUNCIL MEETING. 
PURSUANT TO CIRCULAR. 
Held in the Society’s Rooms, Tuesday, 
March 29th, 1S58. 
Present:—The President, Capt. Ward, 
Dr. Houston, Messrs. T. W. Shepherd, 
W. S. Wall, P. L. C. Shepherd, F. Cres- 
wick, J. Graham, M. Guilfoyle, J. Baptist, 
T. Day, Wm. M‘Donell, F. Mitchell, O. 
Ottley, W. Deane, Hon. Sec. 
His Excellency the Governor-General, 
President, in the chair. 
Minutes of last meeting read and con¬ 
firmed. 
The President laid a small quantity of 
the seed of the Zulu Impliee oh the table, 
together with a stalk of this plant, and 
one of the Sorghum saccharatum, in order 
that the Council might observe the diffe¬ 
rence of saccharine matter in the two 
plants—the Zulu possessing hy far the 
larger quantity. 
Report of Exhibition Committee read, 
and, on the motion of Mr. P. L. C. Shep¬ 
herd, seconded hy Mr. 0. Ottley. Re¬ 
ferred hack to the committee for further 
consideration, the prizes recommended to 
he paid, he authorised for payment. 
Report of Farm and Garden Committee 
read, and adopted, on the motion of Capt. 
Ward, seconded hy Mr. 0. Ottley. 
Report of Finance Committee, read, 
and adopted, on the motion of Mr. Ottley, 
seconded hy Mr. F. Mitchell. 
Resolved, on the motion of Mr. P. L. C. 
Shepherd, seconded by Captain Ward, 
“ That the following gentlemen he re¬ 
quested to act as a committee for making 
preliminary arrangements for a dinner, 
under the auspices ot this Society 7 , viz., 
the President, Captain Ward, Messrs. 
6ttley, Mitchell, P.L. C. Shepherd, and 
theHon. Sec., Mr. W. Deane.” 
Two designs for a medal having been 
laid before the council, it was— 
Resolved, on the motion of Mr. Shep¬ 
herd, seconded hy 7 Mr. Guilfoyle, “ That 
the advertised prize of £5 be awarded to 
Mr. G. F. Angas for his design, and that 
the Secretary he instructed to call for ten¬ 
ders for cutting the die for the same; to 
he sent in on or before Tuesday, 27th inst.” 
Accounts passed. 
Several American magazines having been 
laid on the table, which were presented to 
the Society by Mr. T. Leavitt, it was 
Resolved, “ That the Secretary be di¬ 
rected to thank Mr. Leavitt for his valuable 
donation.” 
The next council meeting will be held 
on Tuesday, 27th inst. 
THE PASTORAL INTEREST (all right!) 
AND GENERAL EXHIBITION OF 
LIVE STOCK. 
By Robert Meston, Esq. 
When one man accuses another, not merely of 
committing a mistake, but a great mistake, the 
accuser ought to feel quite certain that he finds 
sound cause for laying the accusation, air. 
Meston is censured by Mr. T. W. Shepherd, at the 
Thirteenth Monthly Meeting of the Horticultural 
and Agricultural Society, for committing a great 
mistake, by stating in a paper entitled “ Agricul¬ 
tural Associations and Improvement Societies,” 
read at the Twelfth Monthly, Meeting, “that it 
was to be regretted the Pastoral Interests had been 
omitted in the Societies’ plan, and more especially 
is thrown overboard in the Prospectus of your 
Sydney Magazine.” The term great mistake 
sounds rather harsh; the adjective might at least 
have been thrown out. 
If ill erVor alone, no man will be more ready to 
acknowledge it, when pointed out, than the writer 
of that or any other paper which may be read 
before your meetings. Butwhcn the great mistake 
of which he is accused is shared hy numbers, it is 
only a duty owing to the Society and himself, to 
shew reasons. 
It is admitted that his Excellency the President, 
in his address to the Society at the auspicious 
union of two into one, expressly mentioned the 
Pastoral interest, but since the subject seems to 
have tacitly been allowed, like some laws, to fall 
into desuetude and remain a dead letter. 
Either from oversight or intentional omission, it 
is not even mentioned in the Prospectus to the 
“ Sydney Magazine,” a work believed to issue ex¬ 
pressly as the published authority of the Society’s 
transactions and opinions, and which promises a 
long, useful, and valuable duration beneficial to 
the n colony. During ten mouths of this Magazine’s 
publication, not one article on Live Stock appeared 
in any part of its pages; and since the formation 
of our present Society, not a single allusion, as far 
as known, has been made to this, for the colony- 
invaluable kind of property—except in the articles 
of grasses; and a paper read hy Mr. Meston on 
Endemics among Cattle, which, non est inventus, is 
not yet forthcoming. 
These, then, are a few of the reasons which led, 
or mis-led, not a few, to imagine, that the Pastoral 
Interest was to be treated as “ a shadow’s shade,” 
el preterea nihil. 
Out of this error in judgment good may yet 
come, and' our friend T. W. S. is to be commended 
for setting the Pastoral Interest right on this par¬ 
ticular, although the manner was not scarcely over 
urbane to an absent member. In the name of that 
bodv we offer our thanks to Mr. T.1V. Shepherd, for 
his condescension, in taking their welfare under the 
fostering care of the H. and A. Society; and 
doubtless, much good will arise to their state from 
the exhibitions and consequent competition cre¬ 
ated hy the liberal measures to he hereafter adopted 
hy its managing committee; whether in Sydney, 
or in other places. 
