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NEW BUILDINGS.
6. The new departmental buildings, in place of the present dilapidated structure, for which the money was voted in 1888, have not yet been commenced, but I trust that it may be found convenient for a beginning to be made with them during the current year.
BOTANIC GARDENS.
Plant Houses.
7. The wooden supports of the tables of the north house having been ant-eaten or rotten the tables have all been built up solid with brickwork. The roof has also been renewed and the wooden supports have been replaced with light iron work.
8. Similar work has also been effected in the central Fern-house.
9. The roofs and side. sun screens have also to a great extent been replaced with new material which the Superintendent of the Gaol has kindly had made by the prisoners. This is a valuable service rendered by the Gaol Department, a service which it is difficult to get done elsewhere at a reasonable cost.
10. The glass roof of the old plant-house has been removed, in consequence of its decayed con- dition, and replaced with sun screens only.
11. Our minimum temperature in December, January and February is too cold for many plants which are attractively ornamental, but with a suitable glass-house, with the help of a little artificial heat, many interesting plants of this kind might be added to our collections.
12. An additional plant shed 30 feet by 9 feet has been erected in the nursery for the cultivation of sale plants.
13. The glass-house erected in the nursery two years ago has been of the greatest service in affording protection to a large number of plants propagated for sale to the public and for use for filling beds in the Gardens. Another house the same size as this one could be very well utilized now for the growth and protection in inclement weather of maiden-hair ferns and other decorative plants for which there is a considerable steady demand by the public, and which would in all likelihood be increased if the plants could be maintained in a little better condition than the provisional structures now permit. The structures in the nursery need many improvements and additions, but, pending the erection of the new offices, the improved nursery arrangements which may be considerably effected by the work must remain in abeyance.
Walks, Drains, and Channels.
14. The special vote which was liberally granted towards the end of the year enabled me to put the walks throughout the Gardens in a thorough state of good repair by laying down four inches of lime concrete on all the chief walks which, by reason of their gradients, were subject to continual scouring away, during rains, of the decomposed rock with which they were previously made. This condition of the walks will now prevent a great deal of the disorder of walks which has always inevitably prevailed until repairs could be effected after every moderately heavy rain. The total length of walki, varying from five feet to ten feet in width, which were concreted was 3,794 feet in the Botanic Gardens, and 569 feet in Government House grounds.
15. The brick channels on the sides of most of the walks in the Gardens have been put in a good state by repointing and relaying in places, where necessary.
16. A quantity of underground drains have also been attended to by cleaning them out and relaying, and improving sand pits which had been originally faulty in construction, or which had become so in some instances since they were made thirty years ago.
Water Service.
17. I have to thank the Public Works Department for a much improved service of water obtained from the Tytam Water Works and laid on to ten tanks distributed throughout the Old Gardens. To some of these hydrants are placed so that hoses can be fixed for irrigation work. I have also to acknowledge ready and kind assistance from the Fire Brigade Department in the arrangements of fittings for hoses which are now in good working order. What has been accomplished is of great service, but when a suitable opportunity presents itself I trust that the supply will be laid on to various other parts of the Gardens where water is needed but where at present there is none.
Flower Beds and Rockeries.
18. The flower beds have been, as usual, twice filled in most cases, and oftener in a few. The winter plants consist chiefly of annuals, which are planted in November and December and flower from January to April. The Chinese New Year flower, Narcissus Tazetta, is also used for beds and it flowers in January and February, the planting being done at different times in order to preserve a succession of flowers. In the winter months we have now an additional difficulty to contend with which is becoming more pronounced every year, I allude to the great increase of small birds which about the month of December and January, after the bedding plants have attained moderate dimensions, make continuous onslaughts on them, and unless the beds are netted over the birds denude the plants of all their leaves, consuming them for food. These netted beds have an unsightly appearance, but