74 



The Irish Naturalist, 



March, 



KxPKNDil^URK. — The principal expenditure of Union funds 

 has been an account of the Committee's agreement to paj' the 

 railway expenses of inter-Club lecturers and of members of 

 Committee or Club delegates attending Committee meetings ; 

 also (since 1900) lecturers' fees {£1 \s. per lecture, 10^. 6d. for 

 re-deliver}'). Postages and printing are very small items, 

 amounting to some 305. in eight j^ears. The Triennial 

 Conferences are made self-supporting so far as previous calcu- 

 lation will allow, the eventual profit or loss being, in the case 

 of the last two, charged to the Union (1898, profit, £2 \2s. 2d, ; 

 1901, loss, £6 4s. od.). A directory of Irish naturalists was 

 projected, and forms, &c., printed ; it remains unpublished 

 owing to the non-return by a large number of members of the 

 forms sent out. The accounts have been submitted to 

 the Committee annually, and since 1898 a balance sheet has 

 been sent annually by order of the Committee to the Secretary 

 of each Club. The Committee propose that in future a state- 

 ment of accounts shall be published annually in the Irish 

 Naturalist, together with a digest showing the work of the 

 Union during the year. 



The annual expenditure has been as follows : — 



INTERCHANGE OF I^ECTURERS. 



One of the earliest acts of the Union Committee was to 

 arrange for an exchange of lecturers between the affiliated 

 Clubs, the idea being that so far as practicable one lecturer 

 from each Club should visit each other Club each session. In 

 practice the results obtained have diverged from this, 

 as shown by the subjoined table. It will be seen that the 

 number of lecturers sent out by each Club has been fairly 

 proportionate to the number of its members available for 

 lecturing purposes ; and the number of lecturers received, 



