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REPORT 01<^ Till': COUXCiL FOR THE NEAR ENDED 

 30TH June. 1913. 



1. Constitution. — The Annual Meeting of the Association, 

 which was held at Port Elizabeth on the 3rd July, 19 12, adopted 

 a series of resolutions amending the Constitution in certain 

 respects. These resolutions remained to be confirmed by this 

 year's meeting. The view was generally held that it was 

 desirable to begin acting on them at the earliest possible date, 

 and a further resolution was therefore adopted, empowering 

 the Council to take the responsibility of so acting, if, after having 

 conveyed the resolutions arrived at to all members by circular, 

 no objection were made within one month. The instructions 

 of the General Meeting were duly carried out, and, no objection 

 having been taken, last year's resolutions were considered fully 

 operative as from the ist of October. 



2. Financial Year. — Amongst the amendments to the 

 Constitution thus affected was one terminating the financial year 

 on the 31st of May instead of on the 30th of June. The result 

 has been the disappearance of the difficulty mentioned in the 

 opening paragraphs of the last two annual reports — the difficulty 

 of submitting a financial statement within a week after the close 

 of the year covered thereby. 



3. Abolition of Entrance F'EES.^Another amendment re- 

 moved what seems to have been somewhat of a barrier to 

 intending members — the entrance fee. The result of this was 

 that several associates decided to alter their status to that of 

 full membership, and, in addition to these, several other members 

 have also thus been gained for the Association. 



4. Member-siiip. — Notwithstanding these additions, there 

 has been a considerable decrease in the membership roll 

 during the year under report, owing to a determined and 

 continuous effort made throughout the year to collect annual 

 subscriptions, and to purge the Roll of the names of those who 

 for various reasons could no longer be regarded as being of good 

 standing in the Association. As a probable result of the 

 Council's action, there has been a considerable number of 

 resignations of the class of members referred to. 



The nett effect on the distribution of members will be seen 

 from the following comparative table : — . 



