329 



state them as they appeared from letters lie had received upon the sub. 

 ject from various members of the Club. It appeared that, altogether, 

 11 Soirees had been held; that they had been held annually up to 1875. 

 In 1876 the Soiree was omitted for the first time, and it was omitted 

 also in 1878, 1880 and 1881. In 1876 (the first time the Soiree was 

 omitted), the first complaint appeared in the Eeport about large arrears 

 of subscriptions being due (£111), and on the next occasion (1878) the Re- 

 port again mentioned with regret " a large and increasing arrear of sub- 

 scriptions due." The balance in hand at the end of the last year when 

 they had a Soiree was £87 9s 3d, the balance in 1880 being £139 16s 8d. 

 The average cost of a Soiree per head had ranged from lOd in 1869 to 

 Is l^d in 1875. The lowest cost of any Soiree was that of 1867 (one of 

 the best and pleasantest they ever had), amounting to £27 14s lid. The 

 highest cost was £88 15s 9d, for the very crowded and uncomfortable 

 gathering of 1877. The number of new members proposed at the monthly 

 meetings following the four last Soirees were respectively 23, 10, 11 and 

 20 — total 64, whilst in the corresponding months of the four years when 

 there had been no Soirees the numbers had been 7, 5, 4 and 2 — total 18. 



Mr Gilburt said that the Committee were placed in a rather awkward 

 position by the way in which this matter had been brought forward. No 

 notice had been given, and therefore, not having come officially before the 

 Committee, they were not prepared to answer it. Mr Cnrties asked them 

 now for the first time (" No," from Mr. Curties) to consider the questior, 

 and under the circumstances the Committee were not in a position to give a 

 reply, and any explanation which might be offered by any of their number 

 could only be that of an individual member. Not that the Committee were 

 at all divided upon the matter, for with one exception only — and that in the 

 case cf one not in a position to vote — they were unanimous in their reso- 

 lution not to have a Soiree this year and not to have one in the future. 

 Taking into consideration the primary objects for which the Club was estab- 

 lished, that it was to be a society for the promotion of the study of micro- 

 scopy, and that it sought to do this in such ways as providing a library of 

 such works as were of value to the student, and which people were not in a 

 position to purchase for themselves, in providing instruments — of which 

 they certainly had too few for a society like theirs ; also in providing a 

 cabinet of specimens for comparison and reference — when they looked at 

 the question from this point of view they could see in a Soiree only a large ex- 

 penditure without any adequate results in the proper direction. Mr Curties 

 had given thera a number of figures, and these he thought fm-nished one of 

 the best possible arguments against a Soiree. Mr. Curties had told them that 

 the total number of members added to the Club from four Soirees was 64 — 

 not only not enough to provide the expenses for one year, but not half 

 enough to pay for a single Soiree. If they took the year's subscription of 

 these 64 members they would find that, after deducting from them the cost 

 of the Journals and other expenses, they had left just £16 towards this 

 purpose. So that, looking at the matter from a purely financial point of 

 view, he thought the Committee were justified in the course they had 



