2 S50U1H AFRICAN BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



once and Iia.s aUo promised to continue the work should 

 he be dnly elected. Seeing what a difficult task it is, and 

 Low shy we all are of taking this office, we feel sure that 

 this election is a certainty and the business-like way in 

 which our acting Secretary took ovei- the work shows us 

 what possibilities our Society may have. 



MenthfrsJtip: — During the yeai- we lost one member, 

 through death. The number of new members elected this 

 year is only 14, thus giving a total membership of 192. 

 Of these however, 34 are in arrear for their subscriptions 

 for 1918, and for 1919 87 subscriptions are still unpaid. 

 The last big figure is largely due to the fact that through 

 various circumstances, which need not be enumerated 

 here, we were not able to publish our Journal as early 

 as was anticipated. We had calculated to publish only 

 two numbers this year, owing to the prevailing high 

 price of printing, but unfortunately even the first of these 

 numbers is now over six months in arrear, and ha^- just 

 left the press, and we can well understand th^ the 

 Journal not being forthcoming, many members forget 

 about their subscription. The Council on the other hand 

 did not wish to send out reminders until the Journal 

 was published. 



AVe have no doubt, however, that members will realise 

 tlje difficulties which beset a young Society like ouri», 

 and we hope that they will support their Council as much 

 as they can, in order to secure success. 



Although we could not expect a ra})id increase in 

 membership under the above mentioned circumstances, 

 yet ir should be understood that the welfare of a 

 Society is determined firstly by the number of its mem- 

 bers, and secondly by their assistance and co-operation. 

 We feel at the present time there is not sufficient con- 

 tact between the members, a condition that would be 

 largely improved by a more regular publication of the 

 Journal; the incoming Council should therefore endeavour 

 to issue next year at least two numbers. 



