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THIRD ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.

THE third Ordinary General Meeting was held at the "Pall Mall," on Tuesday, January 22nd, 1878. His Grace the DUKE OF MANCHESTER, K.P., President, in the chair.

Amongst those present were the following:-Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., Lady Cooper, and the Misses Cooper (3); Sir John Rose, Bart., K.C.M.G.; Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G. (Agent General for New Zealand), the Hon. and Rev. Francis Byng, Captain Jopp, R.E.; Captain George Frederick Young (Bengal Staff Corps), Captain W. J. Wyatt, Rev. A. Styleman Herring, Dr. Hutson, Rev. C. F. Stovin, Messrs. Alexander McArthur, M.P.; William Forster (Agent-General for New South Wales), - Brewer (Sydney), James A. Youl, C.M.G.; Sandford Fleming, C.M.G. (Canada), Henry J. Jourdain, C. J. Nairn (New Zealand), R. M. McKerrell, B. J. Wardell, Alexander Ried (British Guiana), William L. Merry, B. A. Ferard (New Zealand), J. C. Richmond (New Zealand), John McConnell (British Guiana), Allan C. McCalman (British Guiana), E. G. Barr, William Walker, Gisborne Molineux, H. E. Montgomerie and Miss Montgomerie, F. P. Labilliere, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Matthews, Mr. and Mrs. Westgarth, Rev. J. Long, Messrs. J. V. H. Irwin, P. Homan, H. Monckton, S. Boyce Allen (Sydney), Thomas Hamilton, Frederick Tooth, Myles Patterson, Robert Landale (Victoria), J. H. Thomas, J. Vesey-Fitzgerald (Victoria), A. Rogers (late Member of Council, Bombay), E. Coffee, John A'Deane (New Zealand), G. W. Cooper, Augustus B. Abraham, Mr. and Mrs. Plummer, Messrs. W. Cooper, R. Stevens, John T. Rennie (Cape Colony), John Balfour (Queensland), W. S. Wetherell, G. T. Bean (Adelaide, South Australia), W. T. Deverell (Victoria), Arthur L. Young, T. Bridges, S. B. Browning (New Zealand), G. R. Godson, J. M. Peacock (Cape Colony), C. M. Peacock, Alfred Romilly (Queensland), George Tinline (South Australia), W. L. Shepherd, Robert Porter, E. A. Wallace, J. W. Trutch, C.M.G. (late Lieutenant-Governor, British Columbia), Richard Kidner, B. L. Rose, J. Beaumont (West Indies), E. B. Cargill (New Zealand), W. J. Gibbs, Watson Shennan, E. H. Godsal, F. G. Muir, W. Lee, M.D. (Sydney, New South Wales), D. Ward, S. William Silver, Frederick Green, M. C. Thomson (Rockhampton, Queensland), J. Carlyle, J. H. Butt, and Mr. Frederick Young (Hon. Sec.)

THE DEATH OF MR. WILSON.

The DUKE OF MANCHESTER: Before we proceed to business, I feel it my duty to refer to a loss-a very serious one-which the

Royal Colonial Institute has sustained since our last meeting. Mr. Wilson, of Melbourne, has died; and, as this Institute owes so much to him in its original inception, and for the active part he took as a member of the Council, as long as his health enabled him to do so, and afterwards as a vice-president, I cannot do otherwise than express my own feelings of regret, in which, I am certain, I am joined by every member of the Institute, for the loss we have all sustained. (Hear, hear.) He was a noble Englishman; he did credit to his country, and he did credit to the Colony he joined in assisting and promoting its welfare, and was, I am happy to believe, successful in the enterprises he undertook. I trust that you will forgive me for interrupting the business by expressing these sentiments, but I am sure that the occasion of them warrants my doing so. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. FREDERICK YOUNG: I should like to be permitted to detain the meeting for one moment, before I read the minutes of the last meeting, while I supplement the admirable remarks which you have heard from our President by one or two words of my own with regard to our late friend Mr. Wilson. He was one of the founders of this Institute, and a very active member of the Council; he did all he could while in that position to further the great cause and the great work which we are associated together for the purpose of promoting, namely, the unity of the "Empire." (Hear, hear.) But there are many in this room who had the privilege and the happiness of knowing Mr. Wilson in another capacity, and I can only say on behalf of those who knew him as well as I did myself, that it was a great pleasure to us whenever we went down to visit him in his historic home at Hayes, to receive his genial hospitality there, and to see the way in which he promoted the happiness and the pleasure of all those around him. Most particularly, one great feature in his character was the deep interest which he took in the animal creation; indeed, the house at Hayes might be called a veritable "Animals' Paradise." There his favourite science of acclimatisation was practised to a wonderful extent, and one saw the kangaroo and the emu of Australia, and the monkeys and parrots of other parts of the Empire, with many of our own more domestic animals here, all living in a most harmonious state of perfect freedom and contentment. It must have struck many, as well as myself, that Hayes Place was really a most happy home for all the animal creation. In the death of Mr. Wilson I feel that the Institute has lost one of its most prominent and eminent members, and many of us too a very dear, valued, and honoured friend. (Hear, hear.)

The PRESIDENT then called upon Sir DANIEL COOPER, who said: My lords, ladies, and gentlemen,-The paper which I am about to read is rather short, but I trust it will convey the ideas which I wish to impress upon the public in Great Britain, and especially on some parties in New South Wales. The paper is entitled—

A SKETCH OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 1788 TO 1876.

The eastern part of Australia was discovered by Captain Cook in 1770, during his first voyage in the ship Endeavour. The bold and broken character of the coast reminded him of South Wales, and hence he gave the name of New South Wales to the newlydiscovered country.

On January 26, 1788, the first Governor, Captain Arthur Philip, R.N., landed at the head of Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, with the earliest settlers, and proclaimed the limits of the new Colony. At various times these limits have been reduced.

In 1808, Tasmania was put under a separate government, and South Australia in 1836. Victoria, after a few years' guidance under a superintendent, was finally separated in 1851, and, lastly, Queensland in 1859. The Colony, thus curtailed, still comprises an area of 207,000,000 acres.

At the first numbering of the people, there were found to be 1,030 men, women, and children; and their wealth consisted of 5 head of cattle, 6 horses, 20 goats, 29 sheep, 74 pigs, with 18 turkeys, and some geese and fowls. At the end of 1793 the quantity of land transferred to settlers was 3,470 acres.

At the close of the year 1794 wheat was 10s. per bushel; maize, 78.; the value of a Cape ewe, £6 to £8 8s.; a she-goat, £8 8s.; a full-grown hog, £3 10s.; an English cow, £80. Jamaica rum, £1 to £1 8s. per gallon; Maderia wine, 12s. per gallon.

The colonists suffered great hardships at times from want of food, vicissitudes of weather, and the difficulties of managing the class of people sent out as the first colonists, and also from the hostility of the aborigines. Governor Philip, however, seemed fully equal to any emergency; and by great energy, tact, and judgment may, during his five years of office, be said to have founded the Colony on a solid basis. Whatever may be the abilities of the best of the Governors who succeeded him, to none should the Colony feel a deeper debt of gratitude that to Arthur Philip.

At the end of 1797, the live stock of the Colony consisted of 84 horses, 327 head of cattle, 4,247 hogs, 2,457 sheep, and 2,276 goats.

To Captain John McArthur the Colonies are indebted for the

importation of a class of fine woolled sheep, which have been an inexhaustible source of wealth. By his energy and foresight, against much opposition, he established the pastoral interests of Australia.

It would be tedious to follow the Colony through all its vicissi tudes of prosperity and adversity, and its various political and domestic changes during the first half of the present century. At the end of 1860, the aggregate population of all the Colonies was 1,124,477.

New South Wales, cut down to its present boundaries, at that date possessed

and the export of wool amounted to 12,809,363 pounds. The revenue, exclusive of loans, was £1,308,925, and the expenditure, including interest on loans, was £1,812,777.

The imports for the ten years, 1851-60 (this includes Queensland), was above £5,000,000 per annum, or £52,822,249. The export for the same period was £39,327,726, or a trifle less than £4,000,000 annually.

At this time 7,170,690 acres of land only had been alienated. The public debt was then £3,830,230; and the population 350,860.

The deposits in the seventeen savings banks were £557,196. The banks held, as deposits, £5,164,011.

The savings bank deposits were £1,295,000. The bank deposits were £14,542,868.

At the end of last year, 1876, this surplus is estimated at nearly £2,500,000, and the estimated deferred payments for land, which, at the end of 1875, was £5,000,000, will, at the end of 1877, be greatly increased. The public debt is £13,000,000, and, as a commercial transaction, the two items-accumulated surplus revenue and deferred payments-could be made to pay off more than half this debt. Much anxiety is felt as to this rapidly-accumulating surplus and increasing amount of deferred payments, as they may induce a reckless Government to squander the resources of the country on useless or unproductive works, or unduly large and extravagant Government establishments.

The ex-treasurer, Mr. Alexander Stuart, in making his financial statement in January last, says: "While seeing before us a future of immense wealth still to be derived from our valuable Crown lands, I am deeply impressed that that wealth can only be ours by a wise administration of that which is being realised, and by a constant watchfulness against undue expenditure of a useless and unproductive character, whilst we hesitate not to open the hand with a ready liberality, whenever a beneficial result may be expected."

Up to 1873, the land sales averaged about £250,000 annually. The sales were in 1873

...

...

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£774,000 1,048,000

But whilst this rapid increase in the gross sales of land was taking place, there was an equally rapid increase in the charges of the Lands Department. As applicable to these sales of land, the increase above the cost of the same in 1871 was