STATE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 409 



J. M. Sterling offered the followiug resolution, which was adopted : 



Besolved That the State of Michigan should be represented at the exhibition of the 

 American Pomological Society, meeting in Chicago the coming fall, and that it is our 

 request that the Michigan State Pomological Society make such exhibition of fruits 

 and flowers as in their opinion will be creditable to the State they represent, and is 

 compatible with the funds already appropriated by this Society. 



The committee to whom was referred the memorial of 11. F. Johnstone, 

 reported as follows : 

 To the Executive Committee of the State Agricultxiral Society: 



Your committee, to whom was referred the claims of R. F. Johnstone against this 

 Society, for past services as Secretary thereof, with instructions to examine the same, 

 and report whether or not this Society is under legal obligations to pay said claim, 

 have instructed me to report as follows: 



First, So much of the claim as relates to services rendered before the first day of 

 January, A. D. 1869, amounting to $8GG, are, in the opinion of your committee, barred 

 by the statutes of limitation. 



Second, That the provision in article G, which provides that the Executive Commit- 

 tee shall obey the instructions which shall be given to it at the annual meeting of 

 the Society, is but the expression of a fundamental principle which is binding upon 

 the committee, and that the provision in Art. 9, which provides that the Executive 

 Committee shall allow said Secretary such sum for past and future services as they 

 deem advisable, can only be construed to give the committee such powers in the absenca 

 of such instruction, and not in violation of them, and therefore that the resolution 

 passed at the annual meeting of 1867, directing the same committee to fix the salary 

 at not less than $1,200 per year, was equivalent to fixing the salary at that sum for 

 that year, with power to the committee to raise it to a higlier sum. 



Third, Your committee find as a matter of fact that the Executive Committee, with 

 the full knowledge of the said K. F. Johnstone, assumed to fix the Secretary's salary 

 at $1,000 for the year 18G8, and for all years thereafter that the said claimant acted as 

 its Secretar.y, that said Johnstone received the §1,000 for each year from the Society, 

 with full knowledge tliat the Society considered and intended it as full compensation 

 for his services, and neither protested nor in any other manner made it known to said 

 Society, or to its officers, until after the expiration of his term of service, that he did 

 not consider and receive the same as full compensation for such services; that the said 

 Society elected him from year to year as its Secretary without any knowledge that he 

 claimed a higher compensation than that fixed by the committee, and which he had 

 accepted. Therefore, as a matter of law, your committee give it as their opinion that 

 the Society, when the said Johnstone accepted said oflice and entered upon his duties 

 in the year 1868, and each year of his service thereafter, had a right to believe that 

 the said Secretary intended to, and was willing to discharge the duties of that oflice 

 for the sum of one thousand dollars per annum, and that the said claimant must be 

 deemed in law to have waived any claim to a greater compensation. 



Fourth, Upon limited investigation which your committee have been able to make 

 in the matter before them, they are of opinion that were it not for the bar interposed 

 by the statute of limitation, the said claimant would be legally entitled to receive 

 from this Society the sum of two hundred dollars with interest from the first day of 

 January, 1869, and the sum of four hundred dollars with interest from the first day of 

 January, 1868. All of which is respectfully submitted. 



. J. G. EAMSDELL, 



Chairman. 



The first clause of the report was adopted. 



The second clause of the report was rejected by an aye and no vote as fol- 

 lows : 



Ayes — Dean, Manning, Allison, Sterling, Greene, French, Kamsdell, Kipp — 8. 



Nays — Humphrey, Kimball, Howard, Hanford, Phillips, Rising, Hyde, Beck- 

 -with, Baxter, Burrington — 10. 



The third clause was adopted. 



The fourth clause was rejected and indefinitely postponed : 



Ayes — Kimball, Dean, Manning, Allison, Sterling, Greene, French, Eams- 

 ■dell, Kipp.— 9. 

 52 



