11 
Department of Land and Public Works, 
Sydney, 28th April, 1857. 
SlK ’ The Governor-General laid before the Executive Council the Memorial addressed to his Excellency, bv 
the Council of the Australian Horticultural and Agricultural Society, for land, as a, site lor an Experimental 
Garden and Farm, forwarded in vour letter of the 2nd inst., and I am directed to apprise you for the information 
of the Council of the Society alluded to, that the Executive Council are not unwilling to recommend a compliance 
with the prayer of their Memorial; but desire, in the first instance, to ascertain to what extent the Society is m 
a position, as regards the necessary funds, to carry out the objects for which the grant is sought. 
1 have the honor to be. Sir, 
■William Dease, Esq., Your most obedient servant, 
Honorary Secretary. FITZPATRICK. 
A Committee lias been appointed to devise means for the establishment of a 
permanent fund, to be devoted exclusively to the carrying out of the above object, 
in an efficient manner, the report of this Committee will be appended, bee 
appendix C. , . ,. u 
Since its establishment, the Society has held an autumn exhibition, at which 
many productions of interest were exhibited. Owing to the unfavourable season, 
and other causes, the Horticultural department displayed a falling off; but there 
was an increase in articles of manufacture. The days fixed upon, tor exhibitions 
proving rainy, the receipts at the gates were limited, and insufficient to meet the 
expenses of the exhibition. 
It is a question, worthy the consideration of your future Council, whether these 
metropolitan exhibitions, which trench so largely upon your funds, should be held 
less frequently, or made self-supporting. Their management must always involve 
a large amount of the Council’s attention, and when the days fixed for them prove 
inclement, the Society must always sustain considerable loss. 
The Council have not deemed it expedient, considering the financial position of 
the Society, to incur the very heavy expense of publishing its transactions; but, in 
the first instance, these were published in the daily press, for which kindness the 
Council thinks the thank of the Society justly due. Recently the Council has made 
arrangements which will secure the monthly publication of the transactions of the 
Society in a more permanent form. 
The proprietor of the “ Sydney Magazine of Science and Art ” has arranged to 
publish the transactions of the Society on the following terms: 
That lie shall publish all the transactions of each month that may he handed to him hv tho Secretary. That 
he will guarantee to carry Oil the Magazine for twelve months certain. That under the tit e of the Magazine 
shall be printed—'“ Containing, by authority, the Transactions of the Australian Horticultural and Agricultural 
Society ” That the cost of each "number shall not exceed one shilling, and shall not be published later.than the 
15th of each month, and shall contain the papers and report of the meeting held in the month in which the pub¬ 
lication appears. That the Magazine shall not be used as a vehicle for articles of faction, or relating to religion 
or politics, and that tho title of the Magazine shall be sanctioned by tho Council.—In return, the Council has 
agreed to give the publisher the exclusive right to publish the transactions of the Society, and to purchase at 
least 25 copies, for exchange with those scientific societies which are, or may be, in correspondence with this. 
By this arrangement, the Council believe that the members, and the public 
generally will be'advantageously supplied at a cheap rate, with the transactions 
of the Society, and much other useful information on kindred subjects, either in 
the shape of original or extracted matter, and in a form more convenient and 
less evanescent than the daily press is calculated to supply. 
The Council has not yet been enabled to take direct action in the promotion of 
affiliated Societies in the country districts; while at the same time it is gratifying 
to notice that several societies of a kindred nature have been formed and are now 
for min g in the interior. And your Council feels justified in assuming that the 
proceedings and example of this Society has in some measure contributed to such 
a desirabfe result. It is strongly recommended that your next Council shall 
promote, as far as possible, this object. ... 
The intercourse between this Society and similar institutions, m other countries, 
from the shortness of the period since its formation, has not yet arrived at an 
