^6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



round relief ' should take it is necessary to make proper provision 

 for this relief. 



Every time an Admission fee is remitted there is a deduction 

 from our Capital Account. Every time a Fellow in arrears has 

 to be removed there is a loss to our Revenue Account. Every 

 time a composition-fee on our present scale is paid there is a loss 

 to both accounts. 



This was serious, but could be defended, while our income was 

 ill theory capable of expansion, even though we were aware that 

 in practice our income had become stationary. It was largely 

 owing to the fact that our income had ceased to expand that we 

 felt justified in limiting the number of our Fellows. Now that our 

 income is definitely fixed, the three leakages mentioned must be 

 stopped, not so much because they aflTect our material interests as 

 because they damage those higher interests our recent action is 

 designed to promote. 



Against our income have to be set certain fixed charges which 

 we can neither evade nor reduce. The balance left we devote to 

 the publication of our results — a duty as instant as that of 

 securing them. To reduce that balance means a dereliction 

 of that duty. When granting relief in the matter of fees we 

 must therefore clearly draw upon some fund independent of our 

 normal income. We possess no such fund. Our immediate task 

 therefore is to create one. 



The happy thought which inspired our predecessors to grant 

 authority to our Council to issue a Special Order in the case of an 

 Admission fee or an Annual Contribution, supplies us with a 

 convenient starting point. We can begin what may in time 

 prove a boon to every new Fellow of the Society if we found now 

 an unambitious ' Admission Fee Reduction Fund.' Out of the 

 income of this fund we may give our Council authority to transfer 

 to tlie account of the Society itself the equivalent of an)"^ 

 Admission fee they may by Special Order remit. Out of the 

 income of this fund, too, we can authorise Council, when we have 

 amended their authority to deal with suitable cases of the kind, 

 to transfer to the account of tlie Society the equivalent of any 

 Animal Contribution they may by Special Order excuse. Out of 

 the income of this special fund we maj' also hope from the first 

 to pay to the Society on helialf of every new Fellow £1 of the 

 £6 of his Admission fee. 



The last of these desirable objects may be accomplished when 

 the fund we require has reached a total of £1000. But we do 

 not need, nor would we wish, to stop at this point. Tear by 

 year surplus revenue should be added to capital. Year by year 

 we may hope for further individual contributions to the fund. 

 When the revenue admits of this, the |)ayment on behalf of each 

 new Fellow towards the reduction of his Admission fee may 

 be increased to .£1 10s. Later, as the fund grows, £2 may be 

 paid, and we may go on by increments of 10s. until the fund can 



