REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 125 



Articles of general interest are badly wanted, including 

 some on Botany-, a subject conspicuous by its absence in 

 our issues. Of the articles published in the Journal and 

 Bulletins, apart from the notes on various branches of 

 Science, 13 were on insects, 7 on birds, 2 on mammals, 1 

 on reptiles, and 3 were papers on general subjects. Mem- 

 bers contributing towards the Journal or Bulletin are 

 asked to bear in mind that for the present attention 

 should be given to the need of the amateur naturalist, 

 who requires some guidance and stimulation towards the 

 study of Biology. This stimulus is necessary owing to 

 the regrettable lack of books dealing with our local flora 

 and fauna. Such articles would not only increase our 

 membership, but also cause our Society to fill a place not 

 taken by any other Society in South Africa, while the 

 publication of such is quite properly one of our objects. 



Financial. — Although the cost of printing has been 

 heavy, the balance to 30th September, 1918, showed a 

 credit of £91 Is. 3d., and this, together with the outstand- 

 ing subscriptions, gives us a substantial amount for 1910 

 expenditure. 



Executive Committee. — There w^ere five meetings of the 

 Executive Committee. These were held in February, 

 March, April, June and August, and were, on the whole, 

 well attended. At one of these meetings the principle of 

 founding a lantern-slide collection was adopted ; for this I 

 had much pleasure in offering my collection of about 500 

 slides as a nucleus. Lack of time has prevented us from 

 making lists of the available slides, but details will be 

 published in due course. 



Lihrary. — Our collection of books is still in a deplor- 

 able state; this year again only odd numbers were re- 

 ceived, and there are several lacunae in recent sets, as 

 may be seen in the special report. 



Pretoria Local Branch. — The Pretoria Branch held 

 seven meetings during the year 1918, and an afternoon 

 excursion was arranged to view the collection I made in 

 Southern Khodesia. 



