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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 195, 19 August 1868, Page 2

The following names should have appeared in our list of the cabin passengers by the Ballarat, Miss Hayes and Miss Ingamells, instead of Misses Haynes. Dr Bleasdale at a recent meeting of the Royal Society of Yictoria delivered an interesting address on the subject of the gems of that colony, containing the following passage: — ' Thus much we are 6afe in assuming and in displaying an honest pride in — that as yet no one country on the broad earth has exhibited such an assemblage of varieties of rare and precious gems as Victoria. It looks as if this country had been ordaiued to be a sort of synopsis of the world. Here is a home for all animals — the tropics, in vegetation, are within 100 miles of Melbourne; and in the mineral kingdom, the diamond of India, Ceylon, Brazil, and Siberia is found at Beechwor th ; the blue sapphire of Ceylon is found, in fine large crystals, commonly; the ruby has now been brought before you; audanother form of sapphire, as yet new in Australia, the Oriental aquamarine, and also for the first time sapphire topaz ; and the Oriental chrysoberyl, so far as color goes, that is, the sapphire of the exact chrysoberyl tint. The Oriental emerald I have brought before you already. I have found and exhibited beautiful specimens of tourmaline, and aquamarine, both Victorian and South Australian. The one thing now wanted is the emerald. My friend, the Rev. Mr Clarke, of Sydney, found it in New South Wales j but we yet want it in Victoria to make this the most complete and .unique country on earth in gem minerals. But though we may not yet have found the very finest in their several kinds, I think we may modestly — proudly, if you like — challenge tbe world for varieties of the various gem classes and families; and that is something to say for a country whose resources are only now beginning to be discovered. Tom Moore, who derived his pedigree from Noah, explained it in this manner: * Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and «ne more.'