Report of the Committee. 



During the year 1871 the financial state and the number of 

 members have been satisfactorily maintained. At the end of the 

 year 1S70 a bahmce of lis. 4d. remained in the hands of the 

 Treasurer, and the members numbered 75 ; at the close of the year 

 1871 that balance was £7 19s. 6d., and the mimber of members 81. 

 Four new members have already joined the Society and paid their 

 subscriptions for the year 1872 ; and it is hoped that all those 

 persons in the district who undertake to conduct or patronise the 

 present movement for edtication wiU sooner or later recognise 

 the usefulness of the Society in this respect. Of past years 

 there is the large sum of about £19 still due to the Treasurer for 

 subsci'iptions. 



In the last Report the Committee congratulated the Society on 

 the increased value of the Library, and have now the pleasure to 

 announce that this valvie has been enhanced during the year just 

 passed. Hence such a collection of books on Natural Science is 

 placed at the service of the members as to offer an important and 

 even essential aid in a district where no other public Library of the 

 same kind exists ; and, though the Library consists mainly of such 

 standard books of reference as may be deemed permanently valuable 

 as property or capital, periodical publications in siifEcient number 

 to afford the members an ample knowledge of the progress of the 

 different branches of natural science have been and still are 

 provided. Hence the use of the Library and apartment would be 

 a more liberal return for the annual subscription than could be 

 elsewhere obtained; and, as a provision for the advancement of 

 education, should command the support of the intelligent com- 

 munity of the city and neighbourhood. And of siich support the 

 Society will appear stiU further deser\'ing. when we consider the 

 several advantages of its regular and frequent meetings and 

 excursions, by means of which the members enjoy the most 

 favourable opportunities of providing for or sharing their wants 

 and acquisitions, in a manner too that cannot fail to promote the 

 knowledge of natural science in the district. 



Thus the Library, though a paramount object, is not the only 

 means employed by the Society for the promotion of a pi-actical and 

 theoretical knowledge of Natural History. Distant excursions, 

 when judiciously conducted, coukl not fail to be iiseful in this respect; 

 but these have proved so difficult to accomplish, and so little en- 

 com-aging, that only one was undertaken in 1871, and a single one 

 in 18^0. Accordingly your Committee turned attention to the 

 excursions, already mentioned, nearer home, and instituted fort- 

 nightly meetings for the transaction of the scientific business of 

 the Society, including the examination of the results of those 

 excursions in the neighbourhood. And thus this frequent and easy 

 intercommimion of the members and their friends has proved, as 

 was predicted in the last Report, eminently successful, and the 

 Society has accordingly presented such an increased activity and 

 usefulness as must be gi-atifying to the members. But much 

 remains to be done by the Society. It has yet to awaken an 

 interest in and a zeal for the subject; and this can only be done by 

 promoting a knowledge of it, especially in a district where the taate 



