In the establishment of a museum we have the elements of much good. It is not to be a mere collection of curiosities, serving rather to bewilder than to instruct. It is not to contain specimens that are interesting only because they are beautiful. I hope to see in that museum a complete collection of all the ores that are useful, of all the woods that are suitable for shipbuilding, for roads, and for tramways. There should find a place a large assortment of all stones that can be usefully adapted to architecture, with correct descriptions of the localities from whence they are procured, with a statement of their durability and qualities. I desire to see the museum filled with all those objects that are peculiarly valuable in a new country, to the exclusion of merely ornamental specimens.

In carrying out these views the members of the Institute can each assist in some department; and as all the contributions will be carefully preserved, it should be a subject of pride to each, to add to these records of the country's progress.

The Observatories hitherto established, restricted yet in their operations, are not less practical than the museum. The progress that has already been made in the compilation of meteorological tables is highly satisfactory, and a record of the rain fall and the variations of the thermometer, taken at suitable places throughout the country, will, I trust, be added. The information gained from these—though still limited and insufficient—will go far to settle many doubtful points which perplex the man who is about to settle as an agriculturist. To the farmer the truth respecting the climate of any particular district is obviously of the greatest importance.

In advocating very strongly that the labours of the members of the Institute should be essentially practical, I do not wish to be supposed to underrate the labours of those who devote themselves to the study of abstract truths; nor would I disdain the humblest aids which we can all give to our common object. Some can gather and arrange the raw material, the facts and observations which shall proclaim and explain the existence of new and unknown laws; others can collect the fossils and rocks from which the geologist can frame a history of the world, or the minerals which the Chemist in his laboratory can convert to high and important purposes of life; but more than all, and above all, we can by kindly help and cordial co-operation, cheer the solitary student in his labours, and be the assurance of the wanu sympathies of his fellow-men.

Royal Society of Victoria